Replay: How Berea College Is Turning Student Work Into Verified Skills

Work is already part of the learning

At Berea College, every student works as part of the college experience, creating thousands of opportunities to develop communication, teamwork, leadership, problem-solving, professionalism, and other career-ready skills. Through its Path to Purpose Work College Program, Berea is now making it easier for students to recognize, document, and carry forward that learning. The webinar replay above shows how Berea is using Territorium’s LifeJourney to connect work, reflection, evidence, digital credentials, and career preparation.

Start with the skills students cannot see

The challenge is not issuing more badges. Bradley Powell, Digital Badging and Career Readiness Manager at Berea, describes the real opportunity as identifying the “invisible skills” students are already developing through jobs across campus, from dining and hospitality to offices, athletics, and other work experiences. A strong credential strategy helps students move from simply completing a job to understanding what they learned and how those skills matter beyond college.

Evidence turns a claim into something more useful

A resume can say a student has leadership, communication, or critical-thinking skills, but employers still have to decide whether to trust the claim. LifeJourney allows institutions to issue verified digital achievements that can include context, metadata, and evidence, then gives learners a place to organize those achievements into a Learning and Employment Record. Haley Glover of UpSkill America at the Aspen Institute noted that validation from an institution or supervisor adds an important layer of confidence for employers.

The learner has to understand the value

Berea’s students make the business case for this work especially clear. Alpha Diop, a student director at Berea, described learning to recognize the transferable skills inside experiences such as dining-hall work, while Cody Jessee, another student director, explained that he once knew he had valuable skills but struggled to articulate them in interviews; Kamuskay Kamara, also a student director, described using LifeJourney to connect his existing skills with potential career paths.

Adoption has to be designed in

Berea also put students inside the implementation process, asking them to test LifeJourney, identify friction, and help explain its value to their peers. That matters because a wallet or LER only works if students see a reason to use it, and Haley warned that a platform disconnected from student needs risks becoming just another app they eventually delete. Institutions evaluating credential technology should therefore treat learner experience, portability, and long-term usefulness as core requirements rather than implementation details.

Build a skills strategy, not just a badging program

The strongest lesson from Berea is that technology works best when it supports a larger human process of reflection, coaching, development, and recognition. Territorium gives institutions the infrastructure to issue verified achievements, support learner-owned digital wallets and LERs, connect skills to career pathways, and make evidence of learning more useful beyond campus.

Schedule a demo and learn more today!