A new digital credentials project from ACE’s College Credit Recommendation Service
(CREDIT®) is about to make it easier for employers to put an academic
value on their own training programs, thanks to a $1.5 million grant
from the Lumina Foundation.
ACE and Credly,
a digital credential platform, are working together on the new
initiative to enable a more systematic recognition of learning and
skills development using portable, digital credentials. The project
supports the creation of a machine-readable official “transcript” of
on-the-job skills that can be easily shared with colleges and
universities for academic credit, or with current and future employers
as a verified résumé of one’s knowledge, skills, and abilities.
The effort responds to growing employer
demand for better evidence of skills and competencies among both
job-seekers and current employees.
By enabling learners to earn and transfer
credit from both on-the-job and classroom learning, the initiative will
allow them to create and share a more complete representation of what
they know and can do. Employers, in turn, can use more granular insights
into job-seeker or employee capabilities to maximize investments in
employee education and training, reducing costly churn.
"ACE recognized the powerful interplay
between learning that happens on the job and the transformative
potential of more formal learning experiences when it launched CREDIT®
more than 40 years ago," said Ted Mitchell, president of ACE. "This
investment in digital credentials is about creating a new language for
the labor market. We're fostering collaborations between employers and
institutions that reflect the reality of today's adult learners, and our
shared responsibility in creating more seamless pathways from
employment to education, and economic opportunity."
ACE CREDIT organizations include major
corporations, associations, apprenticeship programs, and government
agencies, which offer a wide array of courses in numerous fields, from
restaurant management to radiology.
"We know that only a fraction of learning
occurs in a traditional education setting," said Jonathan Finkelstein,
founder and CEO of Credly. "On-the-job learning, like school-based
learning, needs to be translated into a data-rich format that can be
read by both college admissions systems and the recruiting and talent
management systems that large employer organizations rely upon. This is
also about employers creating cultures of achievement and recognition to
attract and retain mobile employees and about providing learners with
portable tools to track and share what they know and what they can do."
Danette Howard, senior vice president and
chief strategy officer at Lumina Foundation said, "We know that 70
percent of students are working, gaining valuable competencies that can
lead them to a credential. By making it easier for learners to have a
record of their verified competencies, adult learners will have a
clearer pathway to a postsecondary credential, one that will take less
time and cost less money."