Progress report for
World Civility Index – Improve Youth’s Soft Skills, with Standardized Credentialing as Proof
Achievement at a glance
The second phase (2022-2025) has been completed! The 200,000 users milestone was achieved in early March 2025, a few months ahead of schedule. Most users are corporate employees, and university students from S. E. Asia, South America.Challenges faced in implementation
Overcoming Corporate SkepticismOne of the primary challenges has been corporate skepticism. A recurring question from HR departments and decision-makers is: "Who else is using the World Civility Index?" This reflects a hesitancy to adopt an emerging standard without broad precedent.
Our volunteers have invested significant effort in shifting the conversation from "Who else is using it?" to "What value can this bring to your organization?" The real opportunity lies in using the Index as a ready-made framework for internal performance benchmarking, particularly in soft skills—an area often overlooked or inconsistently measured.
IITTI has already done the foundational work in creating a scalable, verifiable soft skills metric. This allows companies to avoid the time and cost of developing their own standard but instead leverage the World Civility Index as a common, cross-sector standard.
Next Steps
From July 2025 to June 2028, the project will develop and implement a micro-credentialing program consisting of 30 structured micro-lessons focused on soft skills (e.g., empathy, communication, intercultural awareness). The goal is to have a minimum of 10,000 university students complete the full program and earn 30 World Civility Index (WCI) points, with full tracking and verifiable digital credentials.The micro-credentialing program will be delivered through a hybrid model—online self-guided modules supported by in-person or virtual facilitation—leveraging IITTI’s network of certified trainers across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Planning is underway for strategic partnerships with universities and government offices to provide distribution.
Beneficiaries
A standard such as IITTI measuring soft skills has many beneficiaries.
Job-seekers:
All participants will be able to read all articles free-of-charge (unless they want to earn World Civility Index points, then they have to pay). There are general topics on empathy, resilience, emotional intelligence.
There is a section specifically for youth where topics will be about setting priority, time management, social etiquette for youth.
A particularly never-done-before youth topic is technology literacy (technology management) which goes beyond environment protection but a general survey of how technology impact culture and civilization. It is our belief that, in order for communities to be able to push for difficult decisions such as replacing plastic bags with more-expensive biodegradable bags, it takes more than just a small group of engineers, scientists and policy makers. Without the general population understand, appreciate and support what needs to be done, no amount of fancy ads or promotions will sway votes. But with a long-term informal education such as this micro-credentialing, mindsets can be improved.
Another never-done-before topic is the "intercultural-history awareness" where it is felt that in order for people to truly understand someone from another culture, a working knowledge of the other person's background would allow better understanding.
Employers:
Employers can base part of their hiring decisions on a job-applicant's World Civility Index. Think of it as "getting something for nothing"; that is, companies don't need any expenses in training, but yet get new employees with better soft skills! Free!
Actions
Specifically, we designed the IITTI micro-credentialing with these criteria in mind in order to make it the most user-friendly:1.) Long-term
2.) Low intensity
3.) High frequency
We understand people don't have patience and we all tend to have shorter attention span than before. So we created a mobile app and demanded as little time as possible (low intensity) from people's busy lives. An article typically will be 3-5 minutes. That's it!
According to studies (one particularly by Nobel Laureate Dr. Richard Thaler on "Nudge Theory"), people's behaviour can be improved from small and insignificant, yet frequent, messages (nudges). IITTI articles can be consumed once a day (high frequency).
We also prevent "binge reading" by limiting one and only one article per day for earning one (1) World Civility Index. That is, a person cannot read more than one article in a day and earn more than one (1) World Civility Index point.
And like going to the gym, it needs to be long-term to see results. Soft skills cultivation is the same. It is an education of the heart, and it needs time to do so.