InteroperabilityBuilds Shared TrustBetween Educationand Employment

INTEROPERABILITY

Olivia is a highly skilled, experienced, and qualifiedcandidate who is expanding her skills and abilities overtime, yet she isn’t able to show her progress. Therefore,her application does not paint a comprehensive pictureof her ability. Because she cannot upload verifiableproof of her skills, the ATS has filtered her out before ahuman even had the chance to assess her qualifi-cations. If Olivia chooses to rely on listing her manageras a reference to verify her skills, it could reveal herintention to seek a new job, jeopardizing her currentone.

DATACOLLECTED

This is especially true ofrecords that are older and housed in legacy data sys-tems. The sharing of credentials, learning, and employ-ment records is a clunky and imperfect process thatoften results in frustration for learners, job seekers,employers, and workforce advocates

The U.S. Department of Education says these integrated, next-generation strategies should feature a credential registry, learning and employment records (LERs), and a skills-based job description generator.

Yet most credentials fail to adequately capture the skills and knowledge of students who earn them, keeping employers in the dark and closing doors for jobseekers without four-year degrees

Digital badges can be stacked together to replace or supplement formal and informal learning experiences and be understood by learners, higher education, and the workforce

Micro-Credentials and Digital Badges: An Exploration of Definitions and Implications in Higher Education and Workforce

fundamentally change how we connect talent to opportunities

And more importantly, what could it do for workers, education providers, employers, and our communities?

Certain types of learning (like degrees from well-known institutions) continue to be valued over others, even when they might not be the best indicator of job readiness

legacy systems move too slowly, lack the intelligence needed for smart decision-making, and fail to capture the full range of skills and experiences people bring to the table.

iQ4willgenerateandpostadigitalcredentialinthehighschoolstudents'WalletforcompletedCareerandTechnicalEducation(CTE)programsusingtheDigitalCredentialConsortium (DCC)trusted,distributed,andsharedinfrastructureandthe1EdTechOB3wrapperthatprovidescredentialverification,makingiteasierforemployers,educators,andprofessionalstoverifycredential

Institutions increasingly turn to digital credentials to reshape their recruitment and admissions processes. Universities like Georgia Tech, the University of California, Berkeley, and Syracuse already use digital credentials to assess applicants holistically. By incorporating digital badges, microcredentials, and LERs, institutions can create richer, more accurate student profiles that go beyond traditional metrics like standardized test scores and GPA

For nearly half of the lower-wage employment analyzed, we identify at least one higher-paying occupation requiring similar skills in the same metro area. We also find that transitions to similar higher-paying occupations would represent an average annual increase in wages of nearly $15,000, or 49 percent.

Better understanding of what learning described by credentials prepares earners to do in theworkforce, at the skill level. This may be a reframing of competencies toward position descriptionlanguage

Increasingly, our partners are interested in building collections - or connecting to - credentials that they don’t own, issue, or offer to show learners the full pathways of learning opportunities that they can pursue.