Leadership Skills Certification Academy (LSCA) to increase employment opportunities for college grads by providing digital badging credentials to attract potential employers
CARMEL, IN — Feb. 7, 2022 — Today, Lambda Chi Alpha, one of the largest fraternities in North America, launched the widespread collegiate rollout of its Leadership Skills Certification Academy (LSCA), an innovative online training program that delivers professional development resources, trainings and tools that enable Greek Life members to turn relevant aspects of their undergraduate and fraternity co-curricular experience into practical, marketable skills that appeal to prospective employers.
“For years we’ve been waiting for someone to help address the skills gap between college and the professional world. Our LSCA program not only provides for effective training for our organization’s young officers, but it also provides invaluable, marketable skills that will set them up for their professional life,” said Lambda Chi Alpha CEO Troy Medley. “Based on the success of our pilot program, we’re confident LSCA will deliver a stronger classroom-to-career pipeline that will help transform our collegiate officers into thriving young professionals.”
According to a number of studies throughout the years from Gallup, college graduates are often ill-prepared for workplace success due to a widening gap between classroom education and the soft skills required in the real-world job market. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated this issue through new stay-at-home and remote work policies. According to recent research from CNBC and Gallup, about 45 percent of full-time employees were working partly or remotely last September. Many experts posit that these policies directly affect newer, younger employees due to the growth and hidden value of in-office interactions that are not replicated over Zoom calls.
To combat these growing issues for young undergraduates seeking employment, Lambda Chi Alpha is rolling out its pilot-tested LSCA program, which will provide the Fraternity’s young officers with certifications for critical, marketable skills that will help them stand out in an increasingly competitive labor market. The program, which is currently available to Lambda Chi chapter presidents, treasurers, recruitment chairs and philanthropic chairs, will also help them better fulfill their Fraternity responsibilities through targeted, measurable and assessable training.
To develop the ground-breaking program, Lambda Chi Alpha partnered with Kaplan, Inc., one of the world’s most diversified global education organizations. Through the partnership, Lambda Chi Alpha leadership created a four-track program that involves several trainings, or learning journeys, including Leading Teams for chapter presidents, Essentials in Finance for chapter treasurers, Recruitment and Sales for chapter recruitment chairs and Social Responsibility for chapter philanthropic chairs. Delivered virtually via LambdaOnline, Lambda Chi Alpha’s new central online portal, the LSCA learning journeys provide a blend of technical and soft skills ranging from position-specific processes to broader teamwork, problem solving and interpersonal skills. After officers complete the program, they will receive digital badge credentials that are backed with metadata to market their skills to employers through social media platforms such as LinkedIn.
“Academic research has proven a strong causal correlation between fraternity membership and career success, resulting in a 36 percent increase in earnings for fraternity members, according to research from Union College,” said Medley. “Our LSCA program increases the value of fraternity membership even further by giving our members the tools, skills and education they need to stand out and succeed.”
Late last year, Lambda Chi Alpha completed a successful pilot of the LSCA program, which was administered from September to December and involved 13 chapters across North America, including Auburn University, Butler University, University of California San Diego, California Polytechnic State University, Missouri State University, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Louisville, University of Toronto, Troy University, Miami University (OH), Indiana University-Bloomington and University of Montevallo. Since the pilot, several employers from a startup to a major Fortune 500 company have acknowledged and verified the benefits of the real-world skills learned through the LSCA program. For more information about Lambda Chi Alpha’s Kaplan Performance Academy-powered LSCA program, please visit https://blog.lambdachi.org/leadershipskills-info.
