The credential landscape is growing by the day. New programs, new badges, new pathways — opportunity is expanding. But so is confusion.
As learners accumulate skills in diverse ways and employers seek better indicators of what people know and can do, the need for clarity, trust, and structure across the credential marketplace has never been more urgent.
Right now, anyone can claim to issue a credential, but without checks in place, it’s hard to know what (or who) to believe. This matters. With credential data becoming more digitized, open, and portable, we need a digital trust layer to match.
Last month, Credential Engine and the Digital Credentials Consortium (DCC) released two foundational resources to support a stronger, more trustworthy future: a new research report and a governance framework for issuer identity registries. These resources lay the groundwork to build and scale trust in digital credential ecosystems by verifying the legitimacy of credential issuers. Issuer identity registries (IIR), a machine-readable directory of credential issuers, offer a way to confirm that an entity issuing a credential is who they say they are, providing a trusted digital source for credential information. These verifications don’t assess the value of a credential, but they do confirm its origin.
IIRs are directly related to Credential Engine’s Credential Registry publishing system, and by integrating the IIR with the Credential Registry and applying trusted governance, we are able to ensure that every credential published can be traced to a trusted source. The Credential Registry can be compared to an encyclopedia. It contains information about all types of credentials, including degrees, licenses, badges, certifications, and more. The Credential Registry brings transparency to the credential landscape by allowing providers to publicly describe their offerings in a clear, structured, comparable, linked open data format.
IIRs are more like a business directory, to look up and verify information about organizations that issue credentials. Credential Engine will provide issuer identity capabilities in addition to the current Credential Registry, for clear and trustworthy connections across provider and credential data.
Our work with DCC also sets the stage for other types of verification technologies, such as Verifiable Credentials in Learning and Employment Records (LERs) and digital wallets. While Credential Engine doesn’t manage individual identity verification or credential verification, we collaborate with the organizations that do. Our role is to make sure all these parts of the ecosystem can align and work together with shared data standards and trusted infrastructure at the center.
So what’s next? We are working on a future where verified, trusted data helps everyone make smarter decisions, from learners and educators to employers and policymakers. Where every credential includes not only a clear, comparable description, but proof that it comes from a legitimate source. And where digital credentials are discoverable, portable, and credible.
The issuer identity registry research and governance framework are big steps toward that vision.
Take Action With Us
Credential Engine is standing up a new Issuer Identity Registry Advisory Group focused on advising governance using our Ability-Integrity-Benevolence framework. This group will help shape how the IIR integrates existing Credential Registry workflows, support early implementation with integration partners, and propose outreach strategies to engage more issuers, verifiers, and platform providers. Interested in participating? Learn more about the Advisory Group and join here.
Check out the full body of work here: Issuer Identity Registry Research Report and Governance Framework
If you are interested in learning more about the work of Credential Engine or our work on IIRs, email us at info@credentialengine.org.
Subscribe to Credential Engine to learn about upcoming public participation opportunities and to keep up to date on the work of Credential Engine.