For the first time, everyday work can become verified proof of your skills
For years, people have asked for a simpler way to prove the skills they use in the flow of work, without stepping away to prepare for another test. Today, Microsoft is introducing general availability of a first-of-its-kind credential that recognizes proficiency levels demonstrated through real, everyday product use. Welcome to Pro Badge.
Instead of capturing skills on a single test day, this approach keeps pace with your work and the products you use. It gives you a current, verified signal of what you can do, at no cost and without a separate exam or study guide.
The first credential available through this approach is Microsoft Pro Badge: GitHub Copilot. It’s for engineers, developers, and anyone using GitHub Copilot to build and solve problems with code. Pro Badge recognizes and measures how you apply GitHub Copilot across everyday coding and development work, giving you proof you can share on your terms.
How everyday work becomes proof of skill
Pro Badge is built on three connected parts:
- The proficiency framework provides a consistent way to evaluate how effectively you use a given product. It includes five levels—Beginner, Intermediate, Proficient, Advanced, and Expert—so everyone can understand where their skills stand and how they develop over time.
- Verified Proficiency systematically uses evidence from everyday product use to calculate and automatically update your proficiency level. Reach Proficient, Advanced, or Expert to qualify for a Microsoft Pro Badge.
- Microsoft Pro Badge is the credential you receive.
The functionality will roll out in phases. At launch today, the experience will support three proficiency levels: Beginner, Intermediate, and Proficient. Learners who reach Proficient will qualify for the Microsoft Pro Badge: GitHub Copilot. Advanced and Expert levels—and badges recognizing those levels—are our next priority. Users demonstrating those higher levels of proficiency will earn their Pro Badge first at the Proficient level and will automatically upgrade as Advanced and Expert levels launch.
Built on choice, privacy, and trust
Microsoft Pro Badge is opt-in and private by design. Only you can authorize the calculation. Your result is private, and you decide whether and where to share it.
Your product usage is evaluated against objective criteria—not activity volume alone. Proficiency is determined from patterns in how broadly and deeply you use GitHub Copilot across GitHub.com, your integrated development environment (IDE), the command-line interface (CLI), and mobile. Your raw code, prompts, and intellectual property are never reviewed. Your proficiency stays current as your work, skills, and the product evolve. As evidence from your ongoing work is added and older evidence becomes less relevant, your level may hold, rise, or fall.
And because GitHub and Microsoft mint each Pro Badge directly as a result of your work and usage, this is a credential employers and organizations can trust as meaningful.
The experience, step by step
There is no separate exam or study guide. Here is how the experience works:
- Sign in. Use your personal GitHub account. Enterprise Managed User accounts are not supported at launch but are a high priority for inclusion.
- Opt in. Your proficiency is not calculated until you choose to participate.
- Keep working. Relevant tasks from your everyday product use provide the evidence.
- See your level. An objective rubric estimates your proficiency from your GitHub Copilot use over time, so results may not appear immediately.
- Earn your badge. When you reach a qualifying proficiency level, you’ll be notified and your Microsoft Pro Badge will appear on your AI Skills Navigator profile. It is private by default.
- Share your badge. Claim your verified digital badge on Credly to showcase your achievement and the skills it represents. You choose whether and where to share it.
- Stay current. Your level updates as your work, skills, and the product evolve.
Credentials that work together
Pro Badge works alongside Microsoft Certifications. Certifications show that you can solve problems in a role or field. Pro Badge shows how you use a specific product in your everyday work. Together, they give a more complete picture of what you can do.
Share your skills on your terms
Your achievements matter most when you can use them where you build your career. After you qualify for Pro Badge, you can make your skills visible through Credly and LinkedIn:
- Claim your badge on Credly. Accept a verified digital badge that describes your achievement and the skills it represents. Once you have claimed your Credly badge, you can share it to your professional network on LinkedIn.
- Bring your Pro Badge experience to LinkedIn. LinkedIn Connected Apps lets you add a GitHub-verified capability statement to your profile, highlighting your demonstrated GitHub Copilot skills.
Throughout the experience, you stay in control. Nothing is shared automatically. Your badge and capability statement appear only where you choose.
Make your work count
Getting started is simple:
Once you opt in, simply keep doing the work you already do, and let your skills speak for themselves.