How Professional Membership Bodies Enhance Success and Efficiency for Their Members With Digital Credentials.
The Story of
International Compliance Association
Before
- Membership was solely determined by letters after members’ names. This was challenging because it could not be validated or policed in any way.
- Members had no way to publicly showcase their credentials.
- ICA used hard copy or pdf certificates and the process for providing these was time-consuming and manual.
After
- So far, ICA has issued more than 35k unique digital badges to its members.
- They have seen a large increase in social media presence due to students and members sharing their digital credentials. This subtly promotes ICA and raises its profile as a forward-thinking, modern governing body.
- They have seen a reduction in their teams’ workload and support enquiries due to credentials.
- It’s revolutionised the membership experience. The digital credential issuing process has directly contributed to an increase in the retention of existing members. The retention rate at the top level of their membership is now 99%!
The Benefits of Going Digital
These are some of the benefits that institutions experience when they move to digital credentials:
Reduce waste
Minimise your carbon footprint and paper wastage.
Student experience
Whereas previously, a physical paper credential would need to be manually signed and issued by snail mail – which can lead to it getting lost – digital credentials can be issued almost instantly, no matter where in the world a student is. They also have the ability to share their credential publicly with one or two clicks, allowing them to show off their new qualification – which also serves the dual purpose of additional exposure for your institution!
Security & compliance
With a true digital credential – not just a pdf – each diploma/credential will have its own unique digital signature and be impossible to forge. It also allows you to keep up to date with the latest EU legislation.
Open up international markets
By issuing credentials digitally, you can work with students anywhere in the world who will have the same credential experience as your local students.
Save money
The best part is that you can receive all of these benefits and save money in the process! Institutions save 80% on average when they switch from traditional paper credentials to digital.
Why Traditional Credentials Suck
If you’re responsible for issuing credentials at a Higher Education Institution and tired of the old-fashioned, manual, expensive processes, this video is for you!
Every academic year, you go through the same process and it takes hours and hours of manual work to organise and issue digital credentials to all of your students.
You might be in The Registrar’s office, Student Services, IT Department or Administration and you’re finding the current challenges with the way you’re issuing credentials:
Cost
The typical cost per paper credentials can be as high as 75-100 EUR, this can stack up if you’re issuing thousands of credentials as an organisation!
Branding
PDF and paper credentials are hard to share with your network and on your LinkedIn profile as proof of your newly attained skills. They are not clickable and drive little to none traffic to your website!
Security & Compliance
Paper diplomas are easily forged. Even with a PDF solution – which is only halfway to a truly digital credential. Your paper version credentials do not support any of the digital credential standards for verification.
Manual, Lengthy Process
It involves manual processes and checks. It also means that the process takes much longer than is needed, which has an impact on the student experience. The creation, manual checks, printing, packing, posting, handling return to sender, and manually verifying requests from recruiters.
Skills-based Hiring
Your paper credentials are not supporting the shift in the job market which is shifting from degree based hiring to skills based hiring, leaving students with an asset that is difficult to assess.