Career Center

A badge is a digital certificate that shows skills acquired outside the formal study program. There are two types of badges at MCI:

• Skills based Badges are awarded based on participation in various seminars and other learning activities in a competence area.
• Engagement based Badges are awarded on the basis of special engagement around and/or at the MCI in certain areas: for example by being a student representative or an ambassador for the MCI, as a mentor for students or through voluntary work.

MCI offers badges to all MCI students who have collected experience and additional qualifications by engaging in extracurricular activities. You may select your badges according to your preferences, personal interests, and individual career plans. This allows you to create a unique career portfolio for future job applications. In addition, the badge program gives you an opportunity to enhance your digital skills and teaches you to take responsibility for lifelong learning.

Badges make acquired skills and/or special engagement visible to everyone, including potential employers, project partners, clients, etc. and can be shared efficiently via social media.

No, no ECTS are awarded for participation in the MCI Badge Program.

However, there are the following exceptions:

• If individual courses such as winter or summer schools include ECTS, these are extracurricular ECTS. The extent to which you can have these accredited towards your study program is to be decided on a case-by-case basis by the relevant study program.
• In some study programs, it is possible to complete a badge as an elective subject. In this case, the successful completion of the corresponding badge is accredited as a course in your regular study program with ECTS credits. Depending on the study program, only specific badges are eligible.

No, badges are not listed in the Transcript of Records.

The amount of time and effort required for each badge is very individual and depends greatly on you personally. For one person, the time and effort required to participate in two badges is minimal, for someone else, participating in just one badge is a major additional challenge.

In any case, we recommend that you compare the dates of the individual badge activities with your already known schedule before registering and to start with just one badge. In the next academic year, it will already be easier to assess whether the time and effort required to participate is manageable for you.

Yes, participation is also possible during your semester abroad or internship, as long as the badge events you have selected are offered online (synchronous or asynchronous).

Almost all badges can be completed entirely in English, only the two badges Scientific Data Management and Self Marketing are largely held in German.

Please contact us at: badges@mci.edu

Online registration for the MCI Badge Program is possible every year from September 1 to October 15 at www.mci4me.at/badges.

At www.mci4me.at/badges you will find a separate registration button for each badge, which leads to the corresponding registration form. All the necessary fields must be filled in. By clicking on the "Submit" button, you will be automatically forwarded to the payment tool. Your registration is only valid after successful payment and receipt of the registration confirmation.

We recommend taking part in no more than 2 badges per academic year. The regular studies should not be neglected by the additional extracurricular activities.

Yes, you can register for more than the minimum number of elective activities. However, please note that you should only register for activities that you will actually take part in. If you are unable to attend any of the activities you have selected, please let us know as soon as possible via badges@mci.edu.

If you have already completed career events in a previous academic year that are included in the badge of your choice, you can simply list these in the "Recognition of Prior Learning" field in the registration form. Simply enter the title of the relevant career event and the semester in which the course took place. After the information has been checked manually, these activities will be credited to you and do not have to be completed a second time.

Yes, if you have registered for two badges that include one or more of the same events, these will automatically be credited towards both badges once you have successfully completed them. The reason for this is that the badges are about "acquiring skills" and not about "completing certain hours".

Generally, a flat fee of EUR 90 is charged per badge. In some years, the badges "Self Marketing" and "International Career Skills" may be sponsored by companies and are therefore free of charge.

The badge flat fee includes all the events and activities you have selected as well as the awarding of the digital badge.

The payment takes place during the registration process. You can pay the badge fee either via credit card or SOFORT bank transfer. Payment via invoice is not possible.

In general yes, but a cancellation is only free of charge if no selected badge activity has taken place so far.

A badge is usually completed within one academic year. Registration takes place in the fall and the badge will be issued in the summer.

After successful registration at the beginning of the academic year, all selected activities will be entered into your schedule and you will be given access to the Sakai page of the selected badge, where you can document your progress on an ongoing basis.

During the academic year, you must take part in the activities you have selected (mandatory and elective activities). If you are unable to attend an activity, please let us know as soon as possible via badges@mci.edu.

At the end of the academic year, all additionally required certificates of achievement (which will differ depending on the badge) must be uploaded to the corresponding badge Sakai site under "Assignments". The deadline for this is always June 30.

Yes, for successful participation in an activity, a minimum attendance rate of 75% must be achieved. Compensation work is usually not possible.

If you are unable to attend an activity, please let us know as soon as possible via badges@mci.edu. Depending on whether it is a mandatory activity or an elective, non-attendance has different consequences. We will be happy to help you in this matter, do not hesitate to contact us.

On the Sakai site of the corresponding badge, you can keep track of your badge progress via the menu item "My Badge Progress". If, over the course of the academic year, you no longer know which career events you have already successfully attended, you can view the confirmations of attendance / certificates you have received via myMCI in the "Documents" section. You can check all the remaining courses in your schedule at any time.

After manual verification of the requirements by the MCI Student & Career Center, you will receive your badge via email. After that you'll just need to register at https://openbadgepassport.com/ (with the email address you've received the badge email) and from there you can view/download your badge and publish it on platforms such as LinkedIn or XING.

Unfortunately, this means that you will not be awarded the badge.

However, you can get in touch with us to see if we can find a possible individual solution: badges@mci.edu.

Yes, it is possible to receive a badge early, provided that you have already completed all mandatory activities, participated in the minimum number of elective activities and uploaded all additionally required certificates of achievement to Sakai. Please contact badges@mci.edu if you need your badge early so that all requirements can be checked by the MCI Student & Career Center.

You will find instructions on how to do this on the relevant Badge Sakai page under "My Badge Progress" in the document "Getting, Publishing & Managing your Badge".