As a chartered member, one of your benefits is a free digital badge to communicate your professional status as an individual who has demonstrated true excellence, innovation and impact within your field.
With an ever-expanding online marketplace, it’s critical you have the tools to showcase your position at the pinnacle of our sector.
That is why we have partnered with Credly to provide you with a digital badge confirming your credentials.
What is an accreditation credential?
Often referred to as a digital badge, a digital accreditation credential is an online representation of a learning outcome, experience or competency that can be shared and verified online in a way that is easy and secure.
Typically shared via platforms with significant reach such as email signatures, within a website, on professional networking sites like LinkedIn, and on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and X, each credential links to verifiable live data which confirms in real time an individual’s achievement, making them more reliable, effective and secure than a paper-based certificate.
Above: Example accreditation credential visuals for practitioner professional statuses.
Why should I use my accreditation credential?
Accreditation credentials give you a dynamic way to showcase your professional status, career progress and commitment to excellence as a sector professional. They offer:
- verifiable proof of professionalism by being clearly aligned to national standards
- greater visibility with employers and clients as a way to stand out in a competitive market
- career development with a digital record of growth and continuous improvement
professional - pride through recognition of expertise and contribution to public health and wellbeing.
Digital accreditation credentials also help to shift perceptions of the sector because they demonstrate that being part of the sport and physical activity sector isn’t a short-term job and that instead it’s a legitimate, impactful and recognised profession.
Are accreditation credentials effective?
It’s no coincidence that digital credentials are used widely across sectors such as healthcare, education, technology, and construction and engineering. It’s because they offer a dynamic and hugely effective way in which to communicate any skills acquired or competencies gained, and greater visibility with employers and clients as a way to stand out in a competitive market.
When it comes to communicating and showcasing any skills acquired or competencies gained, accreditation credentials are an incredibly powerful tool that offer tangible recognition on a multitude of digital platforms that have significant capabilities in terms of reach.
Designed with mass consumption in mind, your digital accreditation credential can typically be shared via platforms such as email signatures, within your website, as part of an e-portfolio or digital CV, on professional networking sites like LinkedIn, and on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and X.
How do you know?
CIMSPA originally piloted digital credentials through its Chartered Member category, providing a strong foundation for wider rollout with the launch of professional status.
Chartered Members received personalised, verifiable digital badges that could be easily shared across platforms and the response was overwhelmingly positive.
Members valued the ability to clearly demonstrate their chartered status and expertise, while employers, deployers and clients fed back that the credentials made it easier to verify competencies, understand an individual’s level of professionalism and build trust.
This early success confirmed what we had anticipated: that digital badges and accreditation credentials offer a clear, credible and modern way to recognise professional status.
What is to stop somebody from copying my accreditation credential?
All reputable providers of digital badging solutions have robust verification processes to ensure each and every badge is genuine and can efficiently be verified and identified as genuine.
Each digital accreditation credential is unique. When clicked, it will take the user to a page that will either notify them of a verified professional status or that the authentication failed.
This is based on a variety of data that feeds into live authenticity validation results that serve to check and confirm the below details in order to provide a trustworthy signal of competence and credible proof of skills and achievements.
- Professional status – this indicates the member’s current professional level within CIMSPA’s framework. Postnominals (like MCIMSPA) show their membership grade and professional standing.
- Earning criteria – this describes the specific requirements and competencies the member demonstrated to earn this credential, ensuring they meet professional standards.
- Digital verification – this confirms the digital credential is secure and allows the user to verify in real-time against CIMSPA’s database, ensuring its authenticity and current status.
- Issue and expiry dates – these dates show when the credential was issued and when it expires. CIMSPA digital accreditation credentials require ongoing professional development to maintain validity.
While it may be achievable to recreate the design of your accreditation credential, the lack of verifiable data and issuer verification mean it is clear when a badge is a counterfeit.