What’s New: NSITE’s Credly by Pearson Badges Identify Candidates for Skills-Based Hiring in Sourcing (HR), Cisco Networking (IT), Customer-Centered Communications and Sales, and Business Essentials
Why It Matters: Employers Can Easily Identify the Right Candidates with Skills Required for Open Positions; Candidates Showcase Their Skills-Specific Job Readiness
NSITE & Credly Case Study: https://learn.credly.com/case-study/nsite-driving-inclusion
Washington, DC – According to the US Chamber of Commerce, currently 9.6 million jobs remain unfilled, and a surprisingly low 5.7 million workers remain unemployed. At the same time, people with disabilities, including those facing vision loss, are overwhelmingly underemployed, with only 30% fully employed.
Non-profit NSITE, which connects job seekers who are blind with organizations seeking a diverse workforce, proudly announces its partnership with Credly by Pearson to address both the accessibility and employment challenges for job seekers and employers seeking a skilled workforce.
Developed over the past year with Credly’s team, NSITE’s growing catalog of online and virtual instructor-led accessible training programs include courses with Credly’s skills-based digital credentials to distinguish the talents of blind and low-vision candidates who seek knowledge-based positions.
“Working with Credly’s platform, we not only help employers find the right job candidate with skills-specific information built into the digital badge, regardless of the business sector, but we also help our candidates gain confidence and give them visibility in their job searches,” notes NSITE Director of Learning & Leadership Marianne Haegeli, who established the program with Credly in 2022. “We serve professionals who are often overlooked because of vision loss, yet have amazing skills and experience. These skills-specific training courses support our mission of ensuring these professionals can attain their career goals.”
NSITE’s goal is to help substantially reduce the unemployment rate for this untapped workforce by connecting employers with job seekers through NSITE’s training and job placement programs.
“As a recent graduate of the Sourcing Program I can say receiving this [digital] credential has already been extremely helpful. I’ve been offered a job and having gone through the internship, the company was impressed with the skills I now have to offer. I’m extremely happy with my accomplishment and hope others will get the chance to experience this program in the future,” said NSITE Sourcing Specialist Certificate Graduate Yasmin Campbell.
Third-Party Credentials from Credly By Pearson
Credly by Pearson helps people connect their verified abilities to opportunities. The Credly platform strives to bring equity and access to every member of the current and future workforce. Credly hosts the largest and most-connected digital credential network, and helps the world speak a common language of verified knowledge, skills, and abilities.
“As employers embrace skills as the universal currency for talent management, individuals can more readily connect to career opportunities that value the unique capabilities that each person brings to the table,” said Jonathan Finkelstein, founder of Credly and head of product for Pearson Workforce Skills. “With their introduction of digital credentials, NSITE provides professionals and employers with data-rich evidence of skills, achievements and learning that improves human capital decision-making and helps more people and organizations achieve their full potential.”
What Are #NSITE’s Accessible Courses?
NSITE, the first organization to provide a continuum of employment services for the blind or visually impaired, provides an ever-expanding list of programs and resources to train and help place job seekers who are blind, face vision loss, and/or are military veterans. NSITE-U, NSITE’s Learning Management System, along with Credly credentials, offers structured courses that are accessible to all who seek to improve their skills and knowledge, along with a free, self-paced JobSeekers Toolkit, developed with APH (American Printing House for the Blind). NSITE courses include:
- Business Essentials
- Contract Management Support,
- Customer-Centered Communications (with Baker Communications, Inc/BCI)
- NSITE Cisco Networking Academy for I.T. career training
- Google Certificates (scholarships for self-paced, rolling enrollment in Data Analytics, Google IT Support, UX Design, Project Management)
- Sourcing Specialist Certificate for the expanding talent acquisition/recruitment/HR industry
- Professional Mastery of Office Technology for Employment -“ProMOTE”, a training program for intermediate users of assistive technologies to build proficiency and skills in the use of the Microsoft Office suite of products and more, to be effective and more proficient in the professional office environment
“NSITE offers the most comprehensive continuum of support to candidates who are blind or have low vision throughout their career,” stated Jonathan Lucus, Executive Director of NSITE. “Our job seekers can connect with personal career counselors, access training programs in various fields, register on a job board, and be assured that any potential jobs have been vetted and confirmed to be a legitimate position for a candidate facing vision loss.”
NSITE’s Supports Life-long Career Connections with Corporate America
NSITE’s proprietary, free-to-employee job board, NSITE CONNECT, features opportunities from entry- to senior-level, and includes a wide range of positions with an emphasis on white collar jobs.
NSITE also partners with companies nationwide to help identify potential candidates who are blind, have vision loss, and/or veterans. NSITE assists with accessibility needs, onboarding, training, and prepares both parties for job placement. NSITE provides ongoing support to accommodate changes in accessible technology and employer requirements.
“Businesses who haven’t considered candidates who face vision loss should rethink that, as today’s assistive technologies make onboarding a blind or visually impaired employee easier than people expect,” observed Lucus.
ABOUT NSITE
NSITE provides a continuum of employment services that connect employers with talented, dedicated people who are blind or visually impaired to meet their workforce needs. NSITE’s services are also available to veterans. NSITE works with job candidates and employers equally, to ensure that finding the right employee-employer match is as smooth and seamless as possible. With a range of offerings that include talent development, corporate diversity awareness training, and job placement services through the proprietary NSITE CONNECT job board, NSITE is the go-to consultancy for BVI talent and corporate leadership to substantially reduce the unemployment rate for the BVI community. Connect with NSITE: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
ABOUT CREDLY BY PEARSON
Credly by Pearson is helping the world speak a common language about people’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. Thousands of employers, training organizations, associations, certification programs, and workforce development initiatives use Credly to help individuals translate their learning experiences into professional opportunities using trusted, portable, digital credentials. Credly empowers organizations to attract, engage, develop, and retain talent with enterprise-class tools that generate data-driven insights to address skills gaps and highlight opportunities through an unmatched global network of credential issuers. Visit www.credly.com to learn more.
1(https://www.uschamber.com/workforce/understanding-americas-labor-shortage