Udemy Expands Certification and Badging Services for Learners and Businesses with New AI-Powered Features

Udemy Expands Certification and Badging Services for Learners and Businesses with New AI-Powered Features

Udemy, a leading online learning platform, is expanding its Badging and Certification preparation services to all learners through its Personal Plan subscription. It is also introducing new features for Udemy Business customers to enhance skill mastery and tracking.

Certification Preparation Expansion

Due to high demand for IT certification, Udemy is extending its third-party certification preparation services from Udemy Business to all learners via the Personal Plan. The platform, which had over 10 million enrollments in IT certification courses last year, now offers curated learning paths for certification exams from providers like Amazon Web Services, Azure, and CompTIA. This expansion allows more learners to prepare for and achieve industry-recognized certifications.

Badge Management and Insights

Udemy Business users can now use the Badge Upload/Download feature to create verified records of Open Badge achievements. This partnership with 1EdTech ensures organizations can authenticate employees’ skills through verifiable metadata. Learners can download or share their badges, showcasing their achievements. Over 22,000 badges have been imported across more than 1,300 organizations.

The new Badge Insights dashboard provides a summary of all employee badges and certifications, offering valuable insights into team skills and identifying areas for development. Employers can use this information to focus on critical learning objectives, validate skills, award performance, and improve retention.

Addressing Updated Skills Needs

As technology rapidly evolves, ensuring employees have necessary skills is crucial for competitiveness. A recent Udemy study found that 84% of business customers plan to implement a skills-based infrastructure within the next year.

Greg Brown, President and CEO of Udemy, emphasized the importance of demonstrated skills in the workforce, highlighting partnerships with organizations like Native Computing Foundation, Docker, and ServiceNow to help learners acquire critical skills and earn certifications.

Integrated Skills Framework

Udemy’s expanded badging and certification capabilities are part of its Integrated Skills Framework, which allows individuals to validate and demonstrate their skills quickly. This framework helps organizations evaluate professionals based on proven skills rather than traditional criteria like work experience or academic degrees. Udemy also contributes to 1EdTech’s TrustEd Microcredential Coalition, defining industry standards for skills mastery and ensuring the quality of digital credentials.

Curtiss Barnes, CEO of 1EdTech, underscored the value of digital credentials, stressing the need for high-quality credential standards on a global scale. He praised Udemy’s role in defining and elevating these standards.

Customer Demand and Feedback

Udemy has seen strong customer demand. Ryan Jamieson, CTO of Calybre, highlighted the importance of Udemy’s tools for monitoring team progress and validating skills development through industry certifications, essential for their data and AI consulting business.