Unlock a new standard of professional and academic validation with the only nonprofit platform of its kind at scale—prioritizing quality over volume to help organizations develop, launch, and assess high-impact, competency-based micro-credentials.
The Micro-credential Advantage
Unlike traditional certificates based on “seat time,” our micro-credentials validate real skills wherever and however they are developed.
Micro-credentials offer a way to legitimize your skills when breaking into a new role, company, or industry. It gives individuals more confidence when walking into an opportunity.” —Digital Promise Micro-credential Earner
Meaningful Digital Recognition
To ensure these achievements are as functional as they are meaningful, our micro-credentials are issued through Badge Engine. This powerful digital badging system surpasses the limitations of physical certificates by providing an Open Badge 3.0-compliant, high-tech infrastructure. Every badge is verifiable, portable, and learner-controlled.
Since 2013, Digital Promise has led the way in micro-credential innovation, issuing over 34,000 micro-credentials. Leverage our decade of experience to help your organization develop, launch, and assess high-impact, competency-based micro-credentials.
Impact for Every Stage of Learning
Micro-credentials legitimize skills, increase earner confidence, and improve workforce outcomes.
Explore our micro-credential catalog
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How are states and districts across the U.S. engaging with micro-credentials for educators? Our interactive map lets you explore policies and implementation stories across the nation.
Launched in 2020, Digital Promise’s Educator Micro-credential Policy Map is a snapshot of United States educator micro-credential policies at the district and state levels and with higher education institutions. This map is updated annually, and while it is as comprehensive as possible, be aware that policies may have changed since our last update.
Professional Services
Training for assessors and introductory webinars for your learner audience.
Customized support for grant proposals, multi-organization collaborations, pilots, and more.
An integrated platform and professional support to create, host, assess, and issue your credentials.
Streamline the process for your learners with coupon codes for assessment fees.
Learn more about micro-credentials research at Digital Promise by accessing our full publications archive at the Digital Promise Resource Repository or checking out our blog posts.
The study showed that educators’ primary interest in pursuing micro-credentials was initially driven by extrinsic factors; however, sustained persistence in earning multiple micro-credentials shifted their motivators toward intrinsic factors.
A look at where micro-credentials fit in the credentialing ecosystem, what they offer learners, higher education, and the workforce, and how AI is reshaping them.
Traditional credentials miss most of what learners know. This report examines how micro-credentials and learning and employment records can capture the full picture for K–12 learners.
This white paper shares what educators and administrators learned as their districts used micro-credentials for professional learning covering computational learning through the Computational Thinking for NGSS Challenge Collaborative.
I think the most important thing I got from the micro-credentialing experience was something that I’ve tried to do my entire career: How can you continue to improve your craft? You don’t want to remain static in what you’re doing.
I think it’s really something that you can do on your own. Set your own pace, set your own schedule, and take it where you want to go, versus being told what to do.
I would do a micro-credential again because it has helped me to not only reflect better and be more intentional and thoughtful, but it’s actually given me practical choice in what I get to do and pursue.
Micro-credentials offer a way to legitimize your skills when breaking into a new role, company, or industry. It’s like a badge of honor and gives individuals more confidence when walking into an opportunity.
I was frustrated with the limitations of professional learning offered by my district. Most teachers have been successfully implementing personalized learning for students for years, yet our own learning remains regimented. Micro-credentials have been an extraordinary part of my journey as an educator.
Professional learning fits into my day-to-day. I was able to do it after school, learn a little bit more, and then take the knowledge that I grabbed from my micro-credential and put it right into the classroom.
The power of micro-credentials for me is the ability to be reflective on my teaching, to really look at what I have done in the past, what I want to do in the future, identify my areas of weakness, and see, still, how can I improve as an educator.
I observed my kids in the classroom to see how they responded to the changes that I had made. I saw a lot of benefits for the kids. The micro-credential opened my eyes to ways I could’ve rearranged the room so that students could have easier access to the learning activities that I was presenting to them.
I think that micro-credentials are a great way to allow people to have the opportunity to achieve things that maybe otherwise they couldn’t. I go back to the whole concept of making it micro, making it smaller, condensing the information so that you experience success quicker versus having a string of courses and months before you can see any gratification that comes from being able to successfully complete it.
The power of micro-credentials for me is just strengthening a community of teacher learners within a building. I have first-grade teachers collaborating with fifth-grade teachers. And we’re all working together towards the same goal.
