The ability to easily understand and use credentials — known as credential transparency — is central to several federal workforce policy focuses, including talent marketplace development, Workforce Pell implementation, and learning and employment records. While federal workforce policy sets the direction, states determine how to best put those policies, and associated funding, to work for people. Today, state policymakers face a critical choice: build transparent, interoperable systems that serve learners and employers, or allow the complexities of the credential landscape to stand in the way of worker and employer progress.
The U.S. credential marketplace counts 1.85 million credentials, representing $2.34 trillion invested annually. For states, this presents an incredible opportunity to help people navigate this rich landscape through consistent information and proper tools. States that invest in building comprehensive, transparent credential registries position themselves to serve their residents more effectively, attract employer investment, and ensure accountability for public funding.
When credential information is structured using open, linked, and interoperable data standards — such as the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL) — states create infrastructure that can connect to local, regional, and national talent systems. This ensures credential portability across state lines, and enables the AI-powered education and career tools that students, workers, institutions, and employers increasingly rely on.
State Legislation Creates the Foundation for Credential Transparency
States have multiple policy levers to build credential transparency, like legislation, executive orders, cross-agency coordination, and workforce board action. The most effective approaches offer clear mandates and provide the resources and partnerships needed for successful implementation.
Connecticut offers one of the clearest examples of legislative action driving transparent credential infrastructure. In 2021, the state passed legislation creating a statewide database of credentials. Working with the Office of Higher Education, the Office of Workforce Strategy, the New England Board of Higher Education, and Credential Engine, the state began publishing credential data from community colleges to the Credential Registry using CTDL. Today, Connecticut has published more than 3,000 credentials, giving students, job seekers, employers, and policymakers accessible information about what programs exist, what skills they teach, and how they connect to career opportunities. The legislation created both accountability and momentum, establishing a clear expectation that credential information be made public and usable.
Georgia passed a bill that transforms the state’s approaches to education and workforce, called the Education and Workforce Strategy Act (HB1302, 2026). Included in this bill is a requirement that the state develop “a comprehensive, updated collection of information on all educational and occupational credentials that are granted, issued, funded, or governed by the state, including, but not limited to, diplomas, certificates, certifications, microcredentials, digital badges, pre-apprenticeships, apprenticeships, licenses, and degrees of all types and levels. Such collection of information shall also identify those credentials that are aligned to the High-Demand Career List as provided in Code Section 34-14-3.” The language in this bill is the key to catalyze change, going beyond allowance language to prescribe specific actions to benefit the state.
States considering credential registry legislation don’t need to start from scratch. Credential Engine provides sample state legislation that policymakers can adapt for their specific contexts, whether through standalone bills, budget provisions, or workforce development statutes.
Beyond standalone legislation, states should embed credential transparency requirements into existing systems, like mandating credential data transparency as a condition of workforce development funding. This makes the act of publishing credentials in structured, open, linked, and interoperable data (SOLID) formats part of provider accountability frameworks, and ensures that credential transparency becomes part of standard operating practice rather than an add-on initiative.
Talent Marketplaces Require Multi-Agency Coordination
In order to build integrated talent marketplaces — digital platforms that connect learners, credentials, employers, and opportunities — states should combine policy mandates with cross-agency collaboration. These marketplaces represent state-level implementations of the broader federal vision articulated through initiatives like the U.S. Department of Education’s Connecting Talent to Opportunity Challenge.
Texas demonstrates what becomes possible through sustained multi-agency coordination. The Tri-Agency Workforce Initiative created the Texas Credential Library, which now houses more than 18,000 credentials, learning opportunities, occupations, and outcomes. The Tri-Agency model shows that collaborative alignment around shared data infrastructure enables states to build comprehensive systems that serve multiple stakeholder needs simultaneously.
Arkansas powers a statewide registry via its LAUNCH workforce initiative, which acts as both a job board and a career map. This initiative ensures that credential and skills information is available through both online tools and learning and employment records (LERs).
LERs Enable Credential Usability and Portability
Learning and Employment Records (LERs) can be likened to a digital wallet where individuals own and control the verified information about their education, skills, competencies, and work experience. For states, LERs are critical workforce infrastructure, giving residents the power to carry their credentials across educational bodies and between employers, while also enabling states to track outcomes and demonstrate program quality longitudinally.
State talent marketplaces work best when they can communicate across boundaries. System and data interoperability is foundational for usability because credential information needs to move with people as they relocate across state borders for jobs, education, and family. LERs give people the power to take their credentials with them wherever they go.
As long as credentials are described using open data formats like CTDL, the information about them becomes part of a national infrastructure rather than living in an isolated information silo. With common data standards, individuals’ verified skills and credentials can move seamlessly between systems, ensuring portability and strengthening the value of the entire education-to-career ecosystem.
Workforce Pell Implementation Means States Need Data Infrastructure Now
The expansion of Pell Grant eligibility to short-term workforce programs creates immediate implementation challenges for states. Programs must demonstrate rigorous completion, job placement, and earnings metrics, and states are responsible for evaluating whether those programs meet federal standards.
States with transparent credential registries will be better positioned to meet these accountability requirements. When credentials are described using CTDL, the skills, competencies, and outcomes associated with each program become clear and comparable, allowing states to assess alignment with labor market needs. Interoperable data systems allow states to track outcomes across institutions and state lines, providing accurate completion and placement data even for highly mobile populations.
Transparent credential registries also create public visibility into which programs meet quality standards, helping students make informed choices while enabling continuous program improvement. And credential transparency supports the integration of Workforce Pell with broader workforce systems, making visible how short-term credentials can stack toward further advancement and mobility.
AI Increases the Urgency of Structured Data
Learners and workers increasingly use AI-enabled chatbots and career navigation tools to explore education options and career pathways. Employers use AI-powered applicant tracking systems to find qualified candidates. But if credential data isn’t machine-readable, these tools can’t surface educational programs, recommend career pathways, or match credentials to jobs. State credential registries are foundational to ensure that AI — and humans — can read, understand, and compare information about credentials.
Research from Anthropic reveals a striking gap between what AI is theoretically capable of doing and how it’s actually being used. Within the credential landscape, this gap exists largely because the data AI needs — structured information about credentials, skills, and outcomes — often isn’t published in formats AI can read. States that publish credential data using CTDL make sure that available programs show up when students search for “cybersecurity training near me,” or when employers look for candidates with verified project management skills.
AI-powered search and recommendation tools have already reshaped how people discover educational opportunities. States that delay building transparent credential infrastructure risk having their programs become invisible in the very tools people rely on the most.
Take Action to Enable the Right Infrastructure
States can take action that simultaneously addresses today’s critical needs and builds stronger infrastructure for the future. The policy choices that create transparent credential registries also position states to implement federal workforce initiatives, support AI-enabled career tools, and ensure credential portability across systems and state lines.
State policymakers should:
- Enact legislation requiring credential transparency practices for publicly funded programs and training providers, using CTDL as the standard
- Require credential data publishing as a condition of workforce development funding and quality assurance processes
- Strengthen cross-agency coordination among higher education, workforce, economic development, and K-12 agencies to ensure comprehensive talent marketplace infrastructure
- Ensure Workforce Pell readiness by requiring all credential providers publish their programs in SOLID formats
The 1.85 million credentials available in the U.S. represent an extraordinary opportunity — but only if people can actually find, understand, and use them to build careers. State policy will determine whether credential transparency becomes infrastructure that serves everyone or remains an aspirational goal. The decisions state policymakers enact today will shape workforce opportunities for the next generation.