This model gives both learners and employers clarity and confidence around competencies without having to interpret them from college transcripts or job descriptions.
Remove guess work. Transparency demystifies and makes clear what credentials are credentialing.
It enables states to document whether programs are producing graduates with the skills and competencies that regional economies need. Better than the first-job earnings metrics in place today, a quality assurance model can confirm whether credentials are truly delivering verified skills that matter and are producing measurable mobility for learners, employers, and communities.
Knowing that credentials earners then become wage earners is important. It is a relatively reliable signal that the credential carries value. It's also a clumsy proxy for answering the far more vital question of whether the credential is a valuable resource for meeting the skills employers seek in order to fill living wage jobs.
these programs lead to credentials that deliver value because skills and learning outcomes are transparent, credible, and comparable.
We know what the credential is credentialing. We know how the credential compares and relates to other credentials. And we know that if someone has the credential, we can trust that they earned it.
We should applaud the new federal “do no harm” standards and other accountability measures that raise the bar. But our nation’s colleges and universities must aim higher by seeking to do good throughout the lives of their learners.
Impetus is about funding based on short-term employment results, however the opportunity is for institutions to respond with more than a minimal compliance approach and instead take a more meaningful path that goes deeper and broader in serving learners with value now and for years to come.