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If you are the kind of person who is always reading articles and books, watching videos, attending conferences, and completing short courses, you should sign up for Degreed.com to keep track of your learning and provide accreditation for your skills.
The idea behind Degreed is to credit and recognise your day-to-day learning and skill acquisition rather than just assuming that education only resides in the hands of formal education institutions.
It is a free online platform that acts as a central depository where you can log any learning you have done, whether that is reading an article, watching a video or completing a course online.
Once you have created a profile, every time you read an interesting article or watch an educational video on your phone or laptop, you add it to your Degreed profile. You can also share what you are learning and rate the content. Rating content is an important part of Degreed as this peer-to-peer rating assists Degreed to curate quality content.
Degreed does not create its own content but curates content across a variety of channels. You set up your profile and the areas you want to be skilled in, and Degreed sends you curated content based on your learning goals, social recommendations, trending topics and thought leaders.
ONLINE LEARNING
Degreed also taps into online learning channels such as Udemy and Khan Academy. As you build up a history of learning, Degreed rates your skill level although you have to pay a fee to obtain a Skill Certification, which is a digital certificate and verification link you can use on your LinkedIn profile, your CV, Facebook, Twitter or anywhere you post your professional profile.
Although Degreed.com is free to individuals, companies can use it as part of their skill development programme for staff. Alexander Forbes recently bought the licensing rights in Africa for the corporate version, which it has built into its employee benefits offering as Alexander Forbes Empower.
Employers are able to create specific learning programmes for their employees who in turn can learn in their own time but which can be tracked by the company. Apart from providing a way to upskill their employees, it allows a company to identify talent and employees with cross-functional skills.
Alexander Forbes is also using the platform to provide financial education to members, which they hope in future to offer as a free service on the Degreed platform.
