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Digital Badges for Learning and Development Professionals
Recognise your learning. Verify your achievements. Share your professional capability.
A digital badge is a verifiable online credential that represents a skill, achievement, professional status or learning experience. Unlike a simple image or certificate, a digital badge connects to information about who issued it, what the recipient achieved and the criteria required to earn it.
AITD has been using digital badges since 2015 to recognise the learning, professional achievements and contributions of people across Australia’s Learning and Development community.
AITD digital badges are issued through Credly and can be shared online, including on LinkedIn, your digital CV or résumé, website and email signature.
What is a digital badge?
A digital badge is a portable, verifiable way to show what you have learned, achieved or contributed.
Digital badges can represent professional development, skills, membership, professional recognition or other achievements. Behind the visual badge is information that provides context about the achievement and allows other people to verify it online.
Depending on the badge, this information can include:
- who issued the badge
- who earned it
- the achievement or learning it represents
- the criteria required to earn it
- associated skills or capabilities
- when it was awarded
- evidence or information supporting the achievement.
This makes a digital badge more than an image. It gives employers, colleagues and professional networks a way to understand and verify the achievement behind it.
How do digital badges work?
Digital badges make professional achievements easier to recognise, share and verify.
1. Earn
Complete an eligible learning activity, meet professional criteria or achieve recognised professional status.
2. Claim
Eligible AITD badge recipients receive an invitation to claim their badge through Credly.
3. Share
Add your badge to LinkedIn, your CV or résumé, website, email signature or other professional channels.
4. Verify
Anyone viewing the digital credential can follow it to information about the issuer, achievement and earning criteria.
Why are digital badges valuable for L&D professionals?
Learning and Development careers are built through much more than formal qualifications alone.
L&D professionals continually develop their capability through short courses, professional practice, CPD, mentoring, industry involvement, leadership and contribution to the profession.
Digital badges provide a way to make some of that development visible.
They can help you:
- demonstrate professional learning and continuing development
- show specific skills and areas of capability
- provide evidence of achievements that can be verified online
- build a digital record of your professional development over time
- share achievements with employers, clients and professional networks
- bring greater visibility to learning that may not appear on a traditional academic transcript.
How can I earn an AITD digital badge?
AITD digital badges recognise different types of learning, membership, professional contribution and achievement across the Learning and Development profession.
Complete an AITD course
Professional development is one of the main ways to earn an AITD digital badge.
AITD’s short courses are designed by L&D professionals for L&D professionals, with practical learning focused on the skills needed to design, deliver, evaluate and lead effective learning.
Courses cover areas across the L&D profession, including adult learning, instructional design, facilitation, eLearning, AI, neuroscience, presentation skills, strategic partnering and other areas of professional capability.
Eligible participants receive recognition for completing the requirements of their course, including a digital badge. AITD course participants can also access a certificate following attendance or completion in accordance with the requirements of the course.
Maintain your Continuing Professional Development
Eligible AITD members can also earn an annual AITD CPD digital badge by achieving the required number of Continuing Professional Development points during the financial year.
The AITD CPD Program helps members record and recognise ongoing professional learning. Eligible activities can include AITD professional development courses, webinars, professional events and other development activities.
The CPD badge provides visible recognition of your commitment to maintaining and developing your professional capability.
Learn about the AITD CPD Program
Become an AITD member
AITD issues digital badges recognising eligible membership levels.
An AITD membership badge provides a visible and verifiable way to demonstrate your connection to Australia’s professional community for Learning and Development and, where relevant, your level of professional membership.
AITD membership pathways include Student Member, Professional Member, Associate Fellow and Fellow, with different eligibility criteria applying to each level.
Take part in professional development and mentoring
Digital badges can also recognise participation in selected AITD professional development activities beyond individual short courses.
This can include activities such as AITD’s mentoring program, which connects L&D professionals to support career and capability development through mentoring relationships.
Explore AITD's Mentoring Program
Contribute to the L&D profession
Professional capability is also developed through contribution, leadership and service.
AITD uses digital badges to recognise eligible contributions to the work of the Institute and the wider L&D profession, including roles such as:
- AITD Divisional Council members
- Mentors
- Board members
- other recognised professional contributions like those who contributed to AITD's L&D Capability Framework.
These badges help make professional service and contribution visible alongside formal learning and qualifications.
Be recognised through the AITD Excellence Awards
AITD digital badges are also used to recognise achievement through the AITD Excellence Awards.
The Awards recognise outstanding achievement, innovation and impact across Australia’s Learning and Development profession and celebrate organisations, teams and practitioners raising professional standards and strengthening workforce capability.
Digital badges provide finalists, highly commended entrants and winners with another way to share and verify their recognition.
How to claim and use your AITD digital badge
How will I know if I have earned an AITD badge?
If you have earned an eligible AITD digital badge, you will receive an email notification from Credly with instructions for claiming your badge.
Credly advises badge recipients to look for an email from admin@credly.com.
If you are expecting a badge and cannot find the email, check your junk or spam folders and make sure you are checking the email address associated with your AITD activity or membership.
How do I claim my badge?
Follow the link in your Credly notification email.
If you do not already have a Credly account, you will be prompted to create one. Once your account is set up, you can accept your badge and manage how it is displayed and shared.
You can then access your AITD badge through your Credly account.
How do I add my digital badge to LinkedIn?
Once you have accepted your badge in Credly:
- Log in to your Credly account.
- Open the badge you want to share.
- Select the sharing option.
- Choose LinkedIn.
- Follow Credly’s prompts to add the credential to your LinkedIn profile or share the achievement with your network.
When a digital credential is added to the Licences & Certifications section of your LinkedIn profile, viewers can use the credential link to see and verify information about the achievement.
Can I add my digital badge to my CV or résumé?
Yes.
You can include your digital credential in the professional development, certifications, achievements or skills section of a digital CV or résumé and provide a link to the verifiable credential.
This can be particularly useful where you want an employer to see more information about the learning or achievement than can be included in the CV itself.
Can I use my digital badge on my website or email signature?
Yes.
Credly provides options for sharing digital badges online, including embedding or linking to credentials from websites and other digital channels.
When displaying a badge, retain the link to the digital credential wherever possible so viewers can access the information that verifies and explains the achievement.
Is there a cost to claim or share my AITD badge through Credly?
No. Credly does not charge badge earners a fee to accept and use credentials issued to them through the platform.
What if I don't want my digital badge to be public?
You control the visibility of your credentials through your Credly account.
Credly provides privacy settings that allow earners to manage what information is publicly visible.
Can someone copy my digital badge?
Someone may be able to copy the visual image of a badge, but the image alone does not give them the underlying verified credential.
The value of a digital badge is in the credential information connected to it. A legitimate AITD badge links to information identifying the achievement and its issuer, allowing a viewer to verify the credential rather than relying on the image alone.
Frequently asked questions about digital badges
Are digital badges recognised by employers?
Digital badges are designed to make skills and achievements easier for employers and others to understand and verify online.
The significance of an individual badge depends on factors including the organisation that issued it, what the badge represents and the criteria required to earn it.
AITD digital badges provide verifiable recognition from the Australian Institute of Training and Development for eligible learning, membership, contribution and professional achievements.
Is a digital badge a qualification?
Not necessarily.
A digital badge is a way of representing and verifying an achievement online. The achievement behind the badge may relate to professional development, a skill, membership, participation, contribution, certification or another form of recognition.
You should look at the earning criteria attached to an individual badge to understand exactly what it represents.
Is a digital badge the same as a micro-credential?
No.
A micro-credential generally refers to a focused unit of learning or assessed capability. A digital badge is a digital credential format that can be used to represent a micro-credential, but it can also recognise many other achievements.
For example, AITD uses digital badges to recognise professional development as well as membership, CPD, professional contribution and Excellence Awards achievements.
What is an Open Badge?
Open Badges are a standard for representing achievements as portable digital credentials.
An Open Badge combines a visual badge with structured information about the achievement. This can include information about the issuer, recipient, achievement and earning criteria, helping make the credential understandable and verifiable.
Credly digital badges are based on the Open Badges standard.
Do I receive a digital badge when I complete an AITD course?
AITD issues digital badges for eligible course participation or completion.
Individual course requirements apply, and participants may need to attend or complete the full course before receiving their certificate and digital badge.
Check the relevant course information for specific requirements.
Can non-members earn AITD digital badges?
Yes.
Some AITD digital badges relate specifically to membership, but badges can also be earned through eligible professional development, courses, awards and other AITD activities.
Eligibility depends on the individual badge and its earning criteria.
Where can I see examples of AITD digital badges?
AITD has a public issuer profile on Credly where you can explore examples of credentials issued by the Australian Institute of Training and Development.
Can someone copy my digital badge?
Someone may be able to copy the visual image of a badge, but the image alone does not give them the underlying verified credential.
The value of a digital badge is in the credential information connected to it. A legitimate AITD badge links to information identifying the achievement and its issuer, allowing a viewer to verify the credential rather than relying on the image alone.
Build your professional capability with AITD
Your professional development is more than a list of courses completed.
It reflects the skills you build, the learning you apply, the standards you maintain and the contribution you make throughout your career.
AITD digital badges help make those achievements visible.
Whether you are developing a new L&D capability through an AITD course, maintaining your CPD, progressing your professional membership, contributing to the profession or being recognised through the AITD Excellence Awards, digital badges provide a way to record, share and verify your professional journey.
