- Aug 2023
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www.aspeninstitute.org www.aspeninstitute.org
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As employers continue to face hurdles in identifying and hiring qualified talent, the potential for skill- and competency-based digital credentials is likely to grow
This "WHY" for industry is well stated. Employers are highly motivated.
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www.pewresearch.org www.pewresearch.org
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Americans’ views of what a college education should be tend to prioritize specific, workplace-related skills and knowledge rather than general intellectual development and personal growth. Half of Americans say that the main purpose of college should be to teach specific skills and knowledge that can be used in the workplace, while 35% think its main purpose should be to help students grow and develop personally and intellectually and 13% volunteer that these objectives are equally important.
The majority of people in the US believe workforce-relevant skills and knowledge should be a priority for college education. Regardless of whether faculty intentionally and overtly design learning to focus on these skills and knowledge, I believe that nearly all high quality offering in Higher Education implicitly include skills and knowledge with valuable transfer to the workplace. And Best Practices in digital credential design allow us to notice, name, and formally recognize though our credentials where they show up in our learning opportunities and when learners acquire them.
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This survey finds that one-third of Americans who lack a four-year college degree report that they have declined to apply for a job they felt they were qualified for, because that job required a bachelor’s degree.
They may have the skills required but lack the proxy for those skills
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evolllution.com evolllution.com
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At BYU-Pathway Worldwide, this approach has been associated with a 20% increase in student retention (Marcus, 2020). These examples demonstrate the positive impact of earning a certification or certification on persistence, retention and graduation rates for learners in baccalaureate programs.
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One study examining short-term credentials embedded in associate degree programs found that these short-term credentials had positive impacts on retention and degree completion
Although there are equity concerns that are essential to consider, the Student Success piece is a compelling element to consider: In addition to supporting learners' needs for acquiring skills and providing them with credentials to communicate about their skills, the possibility of credentials supporting completion and attainment could be a valuable consideration in program design.
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- Jul 2023
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shrm-res.cloudinary.com shrm-res.cloudinary.com
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SHRM Foundation, in partnership with Walmart, aims to acceleratethe movement to demonstrate the value of nondegree credentialsto identify skills and talents in the workforce. Upon first releasing thisresearch report with the term “alternative credentials,” we discoveredthat the word “alternative” may suggest that employers considercandidates with these credentials as a different, lesser option.We aim to challenge that thinking and declare these credentialsas imperative to the workforce.MAKING SKILLED CREDENTIALS WORK 2
Nondegree vs "alternative"
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- Jun 2023
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www.alamo.edu www.alamo.edu
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This six-part series tells the ACD story of exploration, innovation, and learning
6 part playbook from Alamo
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workcred.org workcred.org
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approaches to align data analytics microcredentials with undergraduate experiences;
embedded MCs
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www.chronicle.com www.chronicle.com
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Northeastern University for its new primer on microcredentials written specifically for higher-ed leaders
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whether microcredentials have been validated or endorsed by a trusted third party; whether they include an experiential or work-based component; and/or whether they map to in-demand skills in a given industry. As I see it, if that’s what employers will be looking for from microcredentials, that’s probably what colleges ought to be putting into them
How to balance HE mission with employer practices? Can we hold that both "our role is to enlighten minds" and "our credentials are meaningfully aligned with employer-speak to help position our learners as job seekers" are valid and complimentary? Or does the latter undermine the former?
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check out the companion primer for human-resources or talent officials, which provides advice for evaluating the microcredentials that job applicants might present
link to Northeastern report
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microcredentials need not be an alternative to college, but rather as a way to introduce or augment existing academic programs
Degrees are NOT dead. This will very possibly increase the value of degrees.
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gauge the value of the microcredentials they offer, a step I suspect many have not yet been brave enough to take. That calls for tracking how often learners claim their awarded microcredential and share it to a professional networking site like LinkedIn, and for collecting feedback on why they did or didn’t. Another suggestion from the primer: track the number of microcredential learners who go on to enroll in a degree program
Interesting data to collect. Relates to the Equity report from Credential Engine: https://credentialengine.org/credential-transparency/equity/
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www.fastcompany.com www.fastcompany.com
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Approximately one-third of employers consider badges during the application process and there are several reasons why.
On the job seeker side: “LinkedIn reports that more than 44% of users added certificates to their profiles in the last two years.”
And on the hiring side, two of the reasons offered for why 1/3 of employers consider digital credentials during the application process: “First, many employers are more interested in the skills job candidates have acquired rather than the coursework they have completed.
Second, considering badges during the interview process allows organizations to assess candidates from a wider range of backgrounds, not just those who have earned a traditional bachelor’s degree. Emphasizing the value of skills and broadening the types of credentials that are accepted (including badges) can help organizations build more inclusive workplaces.”
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www.linkedin.com www.linkedin.com
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Makes the case for why trusted skills assertions can be the future of better connecting talented humans with opportunities they deserve
SHRM research
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www.edalex.com www.edalex.com
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Digital Micro-Credential Efficacy and Impact on Learner Confidence
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credentialengine.org credentialengine.org
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to publish clear, reliable,and verifiable data
This is a competitive for Higher Ed. Reliable and verifiable data that consumers trust.
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As data practices become intentionally anchored in equity,there must be a willingness to hold entities accountableto make adjustments if data trends show consistentshortcomings and unintended consequences. Equitabledata practices cannot be maintained without clear guidingprinciples and the identification of critical data points.Such principles allow for appropriate and effective use ofthese data to support students’ discovery and successfulnavigation of pathways and transfer to achieve optimal andequitable outcomes.
Equitable data practices are about humans achieving optimal and equitable outcomes.
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SECURE, DIGITALSTUDENT RECORDS
Access to student records is an equity issue. It's now been said. Out loud. Regardless of how essential that revenue is, maintaining barriers to accessing student records amounts to institutional efforts to perpetuate inequities.
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We now have the capacity to ensurethat all possible pathways – andthe essential information about allthe providers, credentials, skills,assessments, quality indicators,outcome measures, transfer values,and links to job skills critical tounderstanding and building thosepathways – can be made fully open,transparent and interoperable sothat a new generation of tools tocustom pathways to meet everyone’sindividual need
There is a lot in this little paragraph, and a big point to not miss is the call out of "individual need." There will be dashboards and other tools that purport to serve learners/earners with comprehensive data about the possible pathways that are open to their successful futures. A harmful that we can anticipate many falling into however, will be generalized data that fails to leverage "nearest neighbor" practices that provide users with data based on the outcomes experienced by people with shared characteristics to their own. For example, if a specific pathway has great outcomes that are disproportionately enjoyed by White males under 45 who already work in that industry, then the generalized data may be misleading to a career-changing Black woman in her early 60s who is investigating the next steps in her journey..
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- May 2023
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link.springer.com link.springer.com
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However, the graduation certificate is still paper-based and does not fit employers’ digitized recruitment processes. Digitizing the graduation certificate is overdue to align with the digitized processes of employers and universities. However, there is only a few research on that issue. This paper aims to conduct a systematic literature analysis. Therefore, we investigated 147 articles in the context of research on digital credentials.
Consumption issue: the outgoing recognition is valued by the sender but not in a format that is appreciated by the receiver. The problem with putting highlights on a laser discs is that it requires someone to have a laser disc player.
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docs.google.com docs.google.com
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Market Scan: Skills Validation Methods doc by Education Design Lab and XCredit Skills Validation Network
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www.insidehighered.com www.insidehighered.com
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National Student Clearinghouse Research Center report documents an increase in learners with college credits but no credential and finds they are returning to college at lower rates than in the past.
Highlights the importance of Learner Mobility
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www.talentplaybook.org www.talentplaybook.org
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Talent Playbook
Tags
Annotators
URL
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www.dropbox.com www.dropbox.com
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Unified Credential Framework
WGU Framework
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www.rand.org www.rand.org
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It is also important to note that this positive evidence for low-income certificate-earners stands in con-trast to findings for other historically underserved groups; studies indicate that individuals of color and older individuals go on to stack credentials at lower rates and see smaller earnings gains relative to White individuals and younger individuals (Bohn and McConville, 2018; Bohn, Jackson and McConville, 2019; Daugherty et al., 2020; Daugherty and Anderson, 2021). Although we suspect many low-income individuals are also individuals of color, the findings suggest that there are inequities within stackable credential pipelines that might be more strongly tied to race, ethnicity, and age than to socioeconomic status. It is also possible that many low-income individuals never complete a first certificate and thus do not enter a stackable credential pathway
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Important note on Equity: The positive findings for credential-stacking among low-income individuals stand in contrast to findings for other historically underserved populations, such as older learners and individuals of color, which show some evidence indicating lower rates of stacking and lower returns from stacking relative to younger individuals and White individuals.
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- Apr 2023
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lightcast.io lightcast.io
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Defining the LER
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www.c-ben.org www.c-ben.org
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Interoperable LERs support learners’mobility by functioning in local, regional,state, national, and global talentmarketplaces
MOBILITY
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Interoperability: The ability of systems to worktogether, exchange, and make use of informationfrom other systems. In education, interoperability isthe ability of a system to exchange education andworkforce information with and use information fromother systems without special effort on the part of theuser. This means all individuals, including learners andemployers, have appropriate access to educationand workforce information, allowing them to makeinformed decisions in the workplace
Interoperability is rooted in access and equity
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learners will seek to use their data to interact withemployment and education systems, including career navigation and job searches,that will allow them to continue to build skills and a career
This is a huge concept to strive to embed in the narrative: a major reason WHY this is the right thing to do is that we can help implement systems that allow formal recognition of people's assets to function as tools that empower people in way that allow them increased agency in accessing their successful futures and economic mobility.
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LERs are reshaping not only what is recorded about alearner’s knowledge, skills, and capabilities, but also how learners can access and usetheir data to pursue employment and further education without barriers.
Learners using accessing and using their data is the revolutionary piece here.
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- Mar 2023
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image.uschamber.com image.uschamber.com
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Powered by open standards and protocols, these components will work together tocreate a dynamic, machine-actionable alternative to existing resume and CV options
Machine-readable is key.
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However, this only applies to newly issued records and does notaddress the vast amount of learner and worker experiences that already exist. Typicalemployment and continuing education artifacts like resumes and cover letters are commonlyused in traditional workflow processes but these exclude the vast amount of learning andemployment validation that will elevate and capture skills and experience to serve individualswho need this tool the most.
Huge risk if LERs only serve new recognitions and fail to include existing recognitions simply bc they pre-date the technology. This will disproportionately harm historically underserved and marginalized people.
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