Yes, organizations can now give credit for competency.

By now you may have heard about The NADSP E-Badge Academy. In case you haven’t, organizations will have a formal system to recognize Direct Support Professionals for their knowledge, skills, and values.Organizations will use an online platform called Web Courseworks to give DSPs access to ‘electronic badges’ (E-Badges), and then those employees can then submit written stories, documentation, or audio recordings that demonstrate why they should achieve that E-Badge.

DSPs can share their expertise

This is the chance for DSPs to highlight their skill set, share their professional achievements, and beef up professional portfolios.These E-Badges are currently broken down into two main categories – Core Competencies and Accredited Education. Core Competencies involve how supports actually play out in people’s lives. They cover a dozen competency areas like advocacy, health and wellness, crisis prevention, medication administration, and more. Accredited Education E-Badges involve professional development through knowledge gained from NADSP-Accredited training programs.

Organizations can acknowledge that expertise

Through the NADSP E-Badge Academy, organizations can recognize DSPs’ contributions and share those qualifications with others. These E-Badges can be downloaded, printed out, posted online, or shared to social media accounts. They could be included in annual reports, added to newsletters, incorporated into employee evaluations, integrated into employee on-boarding, or used to establish career ladders – just to list a few possibilities! Stakeholders including people supported, families, donors, board members, and others could really benefit from hearing about all of the accomplishments of an organization’s DSPs.

So what happens next?

If you’re not ready to set up your organization’s administrative account, you can learn more information about the NADSP E-Badge Academy, by visiting nadsp.org/e-badges. From there, you can gather more details, visit the Web Courseworks Catalog, view pricing information, download the Interest Form, and ask NADSP staff any questions you may have.