News -Uman badges: the digital dexterity of students recognised and certified at Rennes School of Business

Uman badges: the digital dexterity of students recognised and certified at Rennes School of Business

A new Rennes School of Business initiative which enables students to validate their emerging digital skills.

Supporting students as they enter the labour market is an important and fundamental issue at Rennes School of Business, whether for a first internship or a first job. Today, skills in digital agility are particularly sought after by companies due to the digital transformation of organisations, the surge in online working and other new forms of digital collaboration. These skills are highly valued by employers because they are directly applicable within the company.

Rennes School of Business has created three new badges to validate and certify the digital skills of our students with the aim of enabling our final-year students (PGE3, IBMP3 and MSc) to showcase their digital competencies to future employers. Students have acquired these skills inherently throughout their programmes, categorised by the following themes:

  • Planning an online meeting
  • Leading an online meeting: in partnership with Klaxoon, an expert in the revolution of meetings
  • Contributing to an online project

The first online testing and validation session took place on Monday 29 March 2021, during which 209 badges were awarded. With the badges obtained, students were then able to showcase their skills on their CVs and LinkedIn profiles. The next session will be organised in May to give more students the opportunity to validate these skills.

These badges are part of the Rennes School of Business Uman initiative which aims to support students from the moment they apply, right up until the moment they leave the School. The badges will be further developed in partnership with the School’s Executive Education department with the aim of recognising and certifying these skills which are acquired during their time at the School.

Tiphaine Follio, Director of Instructional and Curriculum Innovation at Rennes School of Business, tells us more about the meaning behind these badges:

We are keen to encourage students to value the digital skills that they have acquired over the past few months by studying and working in remote groups. This is why the educational engineers of Rennes School of Business have designed assessment mechanisms based on “Planning an online meeting” and “Contributing to an online project”. Our partner, Klaxoon, joined the project to certify a third essential skill: “Leading an online meeting”. This is just the start of an initiative that will be developed further through collaboration with the School’s Executive Education department.

Matthieu Poupard, Alliances & Partnerships Director at Klaxoon, shares his enthusiasm for the partnership:

As an innovation partner of Rennes School of Business since 2018, it was an easy decision to align Klaxoon with the School’s Uman approach, which aims to certify its students’ skills in digital agility. Following a unique and unprecedented year, which tested the ability of every organisation to organise teamwork remotely, we have designed a certification that will enable future graduates of Rennes SB to demonstrate their ability to effectively run a meeting or work in a group using a hybrid configuration (in the office and/or remotely).

The Uman approach

At Rennes School of Business, we consider that “Unframed Thinking” is the key to helping students develop their soft skills, hard skills and their capacity for personal growth, all of which are essential for adapting to the world of the future.

This is why, following a campaign in which we asked both students and parents how they felt, and after drawing inspiration from the moments we have shared with you this year, Rennes School of Business launched its UMan project in order to develop existing support structures and to create new ones in terms of professional careers, the acquisition of emerging skills and the well-being and social connection of every person within the Rennes SB community.