OBF - Choosing to connect to My Skills Pass or My Skills Backpack

Find out more about whether to connect your Open Badge Factory account to My Skills Pass or My Skills Backpack.

When onboarding to Open Badge Factory as an issuing platform, your organisation will be given the choice of being connected to one of two badge passports, My Skills Pass, or My Skills Backpack.

A badge passport, also known as a digital badge wallet, is an online platform that enables users to collect and store their digital badges from various issuing platforms. My Skills Pass and My Skills Backpack also include additional functionality such as storing certificates and creating digital CVs, making them a fantastic piece of kit to add value to your digital badge offer and help your earners get the most out of the badges you issue them.

Being connected to a passport is included by default when you purchase an OBF subscription through us and does not carry an additional charge to you or your earners.

Each OBF account can only be connected to one passport. The invitation to access the passport is visible each time your earners accept an Open Badge Factory badge from you via email. Once an individual has created a passport account, they can use it to accept future badges that you issue them, and enable automatic acceptance if they choose to.

My Skills Pass is an open passport with networking features. Earners can choose to display their earned badges to other users and switch on settings such as messaging and location. We recommend connecting to My Skills Pass if your badge earners are mostly:

Adults aged 18+.
Young People aged 16-17 that you will support to use features of the passport.

My Skills Backpack is a closed-down version that contains the same features for managing badges and content but prevents users from interacting with each other, making it a safer option if your badge earners are mostly:

Children aged under 16, or a mix of age groups that includes under 16s.
Young People aged 16 -17 that will not receive support to use the passport.
Groups, such as vulnerable adults, for which your organisation has specific online safeguarding concerns regarding networking features on My Skills Pass.

Please note that our recommendations are based on common use cases and are not black-and-white rules. If you are unsure or would like to discuss your needs further, don't hesitate to let us know and we will be delighted to chat through the options to help you make your choice.

The table below details available settings and functions for users and which passports they are available on.

Please note:

If you choose to connect your OBF account to My Skills Backpack because you issue to a mix of age groups including under 16s, but will be issuing badges to over 18s that may benefit from the additional functionality of My Skills Pass, your 18+ earners are still welcome to create a My Skills Pass account and use this to manage their badges.