Expanding What CTDL Can Do for Global Credential and Skill Transparency: 2024 Recap

The Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL) is a living language, always expanding and evolving to address new opportunities for global credential and skill transparency. In 2024, our open, collaborative work tackled key innovations around employment and earning metrics, qualifications frameworks, transfer value, micro-credentials, and much more. As the year comes to a close, we celebrate the remarkable progress made through the combined efforts of the Credential Engine team and the CTDL Advisory Group (CAG), empowering people worldwide to achieve their learning and career goals through improved credential data.

Credential transparency is essential to solving global challenges like skill mismatches, learner mobility, and workforce development. By enabling clear, interoperable data ecosystems, CTDL fosters alignment between education and employment, creating opportunities for learners, workers, and organizations worldwide. These efforts are breaking down barriers to understanding credentials, empowering individuals to showcase their achievements and connect their education to workforce needs more effectively.

This year’s efforts were guided by the 2024 CTDL Plan of Work and the Credential Transparency Opportunities Document, which together provided a strategic framework for progress. The CTDL Plan of Work outlines the roadmap for CTDL development and application. Developed with significant input from the CAG, the Credential Transparency Opportunities Document identifies actionable ways to advance credential transparency globally.

The CAG plays a vital role in shaping these efforts by providing insights into CTDL expansion priorities, identifying high-impact opportunities, and ensuring alignment with the evolving needs of global education and workforce systems. Guided by this collaboration, 2024 achievements spanned several key areas:

• Task Groups: Expanded CTDL capabilities to include rubrics, expanded definitions of certificates, outcome metrics, and qualification frameworks.
• Pilots: Completed significant pilots, including the Prior Learning Portability project with the American Council on Education (ACE).
• Schema Mappings: Achieved initial global micro-credential schema mapping.
• Advisory Groups: Concluded the CTDL Vendor Assessment Tool (VAT) Advisory Group and convened the Issuer Registry Advisory Group.
• Global Opportunities: Strengthened global engagement with the Groningen Declaration Network, UNESCO, and APEC initiatives.

These accomplishments demonstrate the significant progress made this year and are further described below.

Task Groups

Task groups are time-limited, collaborative initiatives that focus on defining specific CTDL updates with clear deliverables and outcomes. In 2024, task groups achieved the following:

• Expanded CTDL Publishing Support:
  • Added support for publishing detailed assessment rubrics.
    View the CTDL Rubrics Webinar | CTDL Handbook|Publishing Guide | API Publishing Guide | Registry Consuming Guide
  • Incorporated a variety of certificate types to enhance credential transparency.
    View the Certificates Webinar | Credential Types | CTDL Handbook, Publishing Guide | API Publishing Guide | Registry Consuming Guide
  • Introduced additional metrics to track education and employment outcomes, offering insights into post-credential impacts.
    Explore Education and Employment Outcomes Metrics 
• Qualifications Frameworks as Data: Finalized a task group focused on structuring qualifications frameworks as shareable, open data, enabling easier global comparisons and analysis.
  Linked Open Data Terms Proposal 

Pilots

Pilots validate CTDL enhancements through real-world applications and partner feedback, ensuring the framework meets practical needs and remains adaptable for diverse use cases. In 2024, pilots achieved the following:

• Prior Learning Portability: Partnered with the American Council on Education to enable recognition and transferability of prior learning, improving learner mobility.
  Learn about the Prior Learning Portability Pilot | Pilot Plan
• Quality Assurance Actions: Enhanced transparency and reliability in credential quality assurance processes.
  Review the CTDL Handbook| Pilot Plan | Publishing Guide 
• AACRAO EDGE:Researched data to support comprehensive credential evaluation, contributing to improved understanding and use of international credentials.
  Learn About the Partnership and Pilot, GDN Presentation
• CTDL AI xTRA (Extraction and Transformation) (In Progress): Launched a pilot to automate course catalog extraction and streamline publishing.

Schema Mappings

Schema mappings illustrate how data models align, where they differ, and where gaps exist, supporting interoperability and global recognition of credentials. In 2024, key progress was made in this area:

• Global Micro-Credential Mapping: 
  • Completed the first iteration of global schema mappings for micro-credentials, enabling better alignment and understanding across credentialing systems.
    View the Micro-Credential Mapping |  GDN Presentation Deck
  • Developed a comprehensive report.
    Access the Schema Mapping Report

Advisory Groups

Advisory groups bring together subject matter experts to guide projects and ensure alignment with the needs of learners and workers.

• CTDL Vendor Assessment Tool (VAT): Developed a tool to help buyers and sellers identify requirements for and demonstrate the use of CTDL in software products.
  Learn About the VAT Toolkit
• Issuer Registry Advisory Group (In Progress): Convened to guide standards and practices for an issuer registry prototype in partnership with the MIT Digital Credentials Consortium. Learn About Issuer Registries | Invitation to Join | Charter

Global Opportunities

In 2024, Credential Engine actively participated in global initiatives to foster collaboration, alignment, and interoperability, strengthening the role of CTDL in international credential transparency. Key activities included:

• Groningen Declaration Network: Joined as a signatory to advance international partnerships supporting credential transparency and mobility.
  Learn about Credential Engine’s GDN Participation
• UNESCO AI Frameworks: Published AI frameworks for teachers and students using CTDL to support global education standards and alignment. (Credential Finder)
• UNESCO Digital Learning Week: Shared insights on credential transparency and interoperability at the Paris convening.
  Learn About CTDL Resources
• APEC Workshop in Lima, Peru: Engaged in discussions on qualification frameworks and the impacts of AI, fostering collaboration across APEC economies. Discover Workshop Outcomes

Get Involved

Credential transparency remains at the heart of transforming education and workforce alignment on a global scale. As we look toward 2025, Credential Engine is committed to scaling these efforts, fostering global partnerships, and creating new opportunities to make credential data more accessible and actionable.

Join us in shaping the future of global credential transparency. There are several ways for you to contribute:

• Join the CTDL Advisory Group: CTDL Advisory Group | Credential Engine 
• Subscribe to the Credential Engine Newsletter: https://credentialengine.org/subscribe/ 

Together, we can create seamless pathways that connect learning and work, empowering individuals and strengthening workforce systems worldwide.