Managing Your Badges
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      2. Badge Nation
      3. Managing Your Badges

      Can I issue badges to a parent / guardian on an earner's behalf?

      Find out more about issuing badges to parents and guardians.

      Digital badges are designed to be traceable and owned by the earner. Issuing a badge is a verification that the person owning the email address has achieved the earning criteria in your badge – by issuing badges to an email address that does not belong to the earner, it can create difficulties for them retaining access to their verified achievements as they develop and grow. Therefore, many issuing platforms require earners to create their individual accounts to accept their badges and these issuing platforms tend to distinctly advise against issuing to a parent / guardian on an earner’s behalf.

      While we do recommend that issuing takes place directly to the earner wherever possible, there are lots of circumstances where earners cannot access an email address of their own. In these cases, it can make issuing badges difficult.

      We do not support the practice of issuing badges to an email address that does not belong to the earner using an issuing platform that has expressly told us they do not condone it, so the issuing platform your organisation uses is a factor in whether you can issue to parents or guardians.

      ❌ Credly
      Accepting a badge on Credly requires creating an individual account on the platform and does not support issuing to an email address that doesn’t belong to the earner.

      ❌ Navigatr
      Accepting a badge on Navigatr requires creating an individual account on the platform and does not support issuing to an email address that doesn’t belong to the earner.

      ✅ Open Badge Factory (OBF)
      Accepting a badge on OBF does not require an individual to create an account and can support issuing to a parent or guardian if required.

      Please note that although issuing to a parent or guardian on behalf of an earner is possible when issuing via OBF, there are still some considerations to take into account before you get started. Please see this guide for more information if you intend to issue badges on behalf of an earner using OBF.

      If you need to discuss what issuing platform your organisation uses to issue digital badges, don't hesitate to get in touch and we will be delighted to arrange a conversation.