FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New England Board of Higher Ed Launches Regional Initiative with Credential Engine
May 9, 2018 (Boston, MA – The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) received a $650,000 grant from Lumina Foundation to launch the High Value Credentials for New England (HVCNE) initiative. HVCNE will provide four states with the tools and technical assistance to identify high-value credentials in the life and biosciences, information technology, healthcare and business and financial operations industries – and populate these credentials to Credential Engine’s Credential Registry.
Dedicated to creating credential transparency and revealing the credential marketplace, Credential Engine provides a common language to describe credentials and details about credentials, a cloud-based Registry to collect and connect credential data, and a platform to support applications that would use credential information. HVCNE will have access to these tools and services to obtain the data needed to help students and workers prepare for the future economies of New England.
HVCNE is the first regional effort to utilize the Registry to increase transparency about postsecondary credentials for individuals, employers, institutions and policymakers. Indiana and New Jersey have both launched similar initiatives to populate credentials to the Registry, recognizing its value in creating career pathways, providing comparative data to prospective students, and providing credential competency information to employers to be used in the hiring process.
“High Value Credentials for New England will shed useful light on opportunities for residents of the region to sustain our human capital advantage and identify new credentials and credential pathways, as well as partnerships and collaboration between the higher education and business communities,” said NEBHE President & CEO Michael K. Thomas.
The Commission on Higher Education & Employability, a regional venture of NEBHE chaired by Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo, recommended that New England states collaborate to support the build-out of the Registry. The Commission found that the proliferation of multiple types and sources of credentials is creating a complex environment for individuals, institutions and employers to understand their value.
“Credential Engine looks forward to working with NEBHE and the New England states to improve credential transparency in these key industries. By helping New England map the credential landscape and understand credential data and linkages in a uniform way, we expect to enable states to improve not only their own career-pathway efforts but also enable cross-collaboration between and among state systems,” said Scott Cheney, executive director of Credential Engine.
Over the next 24 months, NEBHE will work with state higher education agencies and institutions, as well as private colleges and third-party providers to populate the Registry with credentials and data pertinent to individuals’ education and career choices, states’ attainment and workforce development goals, and employers’ hiring decisions.
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Contact: Carrie Samson
Communication Manager, Credential Engine
Phone: (614) 218-6837
Email: csamson@credentialengine.org
Contact: Candace Williams
Project Director, NEBHE
Phone: (617) 533-9530
Email: cwilliams@nebhe.org