Badge proponents hope that, as employers emphasize more precise competencies in their hiring calculus, human and machine scanners will deemphasize generic diplomas in favor of the rarefied skills an employer actually seeks.

FORBES: Why Get a Pricey Diploma When a Bleepin' Badge Will Do?

For example, the literacy levels of people aged 52-60 when tested in 1995 are used to estimate the competencies of 17-25-year-olds in 1960, and hence the human-capital investment that had just been made in the course of that cohort's education.

ECONOMIST: A breakthrough in measuring the knowledge economy