Montana

In 2025,  the state of Montana passed Montana HB 252, or the STARS Act, which tasked the Montana Department of Labor and Industry with providing a credential database to track industry-recognized credentials, non-degree certificates, work-based learning experiences, and Montana University System non degree credential’s sprint degrees, and degree programs. Now, Montana DLI, utilizing the Credential Registry, has successfully set up the Montana Credential Registry. The Montana Credential Registry includes certificates, apprenticeships, degrees, licenses, industry-recognized certifications, and stackable micro-credentials, along with details on the skills and competencies they represent. The registry is designed to help students, jobseekers, employers, and educators explore credential options, compare pathways, and connect education and training to career opportunities in Montana’s economy. 

Accelerate Montana began working with Credential Engine to publish data around the state’s non-credit education credentials, skills, and career pathways to provide more transparency and accessible information to students, workers, and employers across the state. These credentials also include supplemental data such as learning delivery type, CIP and SOC codes, cost, financial aid information, and stackable pathway connections. Links to licensure or embedded credentials were included where applicable – typically covering programs in CDL, CNA, paramedic/EMT, accounting, and other licensed fields.

Additionally, Accelerate Montana (AMT) partnered with the Blackfeet Nation to make Indigenous cultural knowledge visible within workforce systems. Standard competency taxonomies, derived from labor market data and job postings, held only generic information referencing intercultural knowledge, rendering the cultural competencies of the Blackfeet invisible. This project addressed that gap by developing ten Blackfoot Living Principles as formally structured workplace competencies and publishing them as open linked data to the Credential Engine Registry using CTDL.The early phase of translation was documented through a mini-documentary. The video captures the spirit and stakes of the work and is a significant asset for sharing the methodology with other communities.

The state of Montana has been named a winner in the U.S Department of Education’s Connection Talent to Opportunity (CTO) Challenge.