- Building Skills with CTE
- What is a Digital Badge?
- Digital Badge Standards
- What Are the Benefits of a Digital Badge?
- How Do Students Keep and Share Their Digital Badges?
- What is a Pathway?
- SkillsHouse CTE Curriculum and Pathways
- Where Can I Find Out About the Different Pathways?
- How Do Students Share Their Achievements?
- What Does This Cost?
- Have Any Questions?
- Feedback From an Educator
Building Skills with CTE
The CTE Sector Skills framework has been co-designed with local employers and is agile enough to capture any emerging needs, skills gaps, and training requirements.
It takes an employer led approach to developing and embedding the technical and essential skills young people need for successful careers through 15 industry sectors.
The CTE careers curriculum provides local learning provision to address the skills needed to meet the district’s ambitions.
These essential skills are transferable across different sectors, pathways, workplaces, and different job types and are easily identifiable and applicable to classrooms. We use digital badges to reward students and recognise the skills they are learning.
What is a Digital Badge?
A digital badge is a smart, simple, and visual way of showcasing the essential and technical skills that employers seek. Digital badges will highlight skills that may not be obvious or recognised by academic qualifications.
It helps the learner to understand what skills they have developed and lets them share their achievement on their CV, with an employer or prospective employer, or via social media. Digital badges provide motivation and reward for learning and are a digital marker of achievement commonly used to recognise skills and competencies.
Digital Badge Standards
Bradford Council now uses the Navigatr Badge framework. This is designed to make creating our badges consistent, on brand and easy to create, so the type and depth of learning can be understood immediately. Endorsements from our partners, businesses, communities, and awarding organisations can all be added to badges, adding additional weight and credibility.
Each Shape represents a different type of learning and there are five levels (modes) of badge depending on the depth of learning or skills demonstrated.
Choose the shape that fits your learning:
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Structured learning focused on a specific skill or subject. Typically recognised with a provider certificate. |
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Formal learning for specific subject mastery. Validated by a certification from an external body. Includes Kitemarking. |
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Structured programme of study. Validated by a degree or professional title from an accredited institution. |
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Learning through active participation in an Association group or community. Recognised by membership status. |
Choose the mode that fits your badge:
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The beginning stage, marked by finding and exploring a new subject. |
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As learners delve deeper into the subject and deepen their knowledge. |
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Learners apply their skills in practice and gain competency. |
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At this level, learners can teach others skills or competencies. |
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Guide, influence and inspire others towards change for good. |
What Are the Benefits of a Digital Badge?
- A digital badge is a smart, simple, and visual way of recognising your student’s skills
- Badges help learners articulate the skills, knowledge and experience they develop through your activities
- Badges are verifiable: Prospective employers or educational institutions can identify who issued the badge, when and where it was earned, and what criteria were used to earn it
- Badges are portable: Individuals can access their badges indefinitely and share them via social media or embed them in a resume for prospective or current employers or postsecondary institutions
- Badges give students the language to better tell their stories by clearly spelling out the activity they have carried out and the attitudes they have gained along the way, while giving them the language that employers understand. What is particularly useful about this is highlighting transferrable skills that may not – at first glance – be seen as relevant
- Digital badges contain verified metadata. They describe a student’s learning and skills gained, and the process required to earn them
What is a Pathway?
A pathway is a collection of badges in a particular industry sector. These pathways align to further study or opportunities in early careers. A pathway helps students to progress through the steps needed to reach a goal. The motivation through a pathway of learning is provided by breaking it down into steps, which could each be awarded with a digital badge. Some pathways lead to a specific goal such as further learning, work experience or a job interview.
SkillsHouse CTE Curriculum and Pathways
The SkillsHouse CTE Curriculum and Pathways Team provide specialist curriculum consultancy enabling education providers to embed the Bradford Careers and Technical Education (CTE) Framework; the practice of teaching specific career-related skills from primary to secondary through to post-secondary education.
This is achieved by co-designing and delivering sector-based programs of learning in partnership with employers which are embedded into the education establishment's subject curriculum to develop learner's understanding and progression into high-demand sectors and occupations.
CTE Learners progress through sector-based programmes of learning, bringing their academic studies to life to gain industry-led credentials, and recognition of their skills and knowledge through employer approved digital skills badges.
Where Can I Find Out About the Different Pathways?
You can find out what pathways are available in the Bradford area by visiting the discover page on the Navigatr website. You can also search by the subject or industry you are interested in or even in other parts of the country.
To see the pathways and badges available for Bradford District click on the link below for more information.
How Do Students Share Their Achievements?
Once they have a Navigatr account, any badges they earn can be shared via social media or added to their LinkedIn profile at the touch of button. They can also embed them in a CV for prospective or current employers or postsecondary institutions.
What Does This Cost?
It is completely free of charge for your students to create and use their own Navigatr account
There is no cost for your students to earn and be issued badges by CTE.
If your school or college wishes to write and issue their own badges, then your organisation would have to purchase their own Navigatr package, and they have several contract packages depending on how many badges you want to create. There are also several other organisations who provide this service. For more information see the link below or alternatively contact CTE for further information.
Have Any Questions?
Please get in touch with the SkillsHouse Careers and Technical Education team by using the Contact Us form
Feedback From an Educator
“It is always great to work alongside Danny and the SkillsHouse Team.
The presentation to our students on the digital badges and the Navigatr system was great.
It helped the students understand some of the missing skills that employers are looking for, how they will develop these skills, and how they will have the digital badges to prove them.
These digital badges will help set our students above the competition to gain their dream careers.
During the presentation, the students were all easily able to log on to the Navigatr system and achieve their first badge which was brilliant.”
Faye McFadyean -Travel & Tourism Lecturer Bradford College