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3. Align With Existing Commitments4. Catalog And Publish5. Make Data Actionable

Learning and Employment Records (LERs)

Learning and Employment Records (LERs) provide interoperable, portable credentials that document people's skills, educational experiences, and work histories. LERs document learning and experience wherever they occur, including in the workplace, through education and training, community activities, or military contexts. These resources provide context for how CTDL makes LERs meaningful and valuable.

Implementers
1. Understand the Value2. Make the Case

Publishing Jobs Data With CTDL: One-Pager

Publishing linked open data about jobs increases opportunities for people to achieve their learning and career pathway goals spanning education, training, and work. Using the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL) and the Credential Registry offers an open standard, transparent, and data-driven approach to bridging the gap between education and work in data ecosystems. It supports informed decision-making, effective skill matching, and collaborative partnerships for the betterment of learners, employers, and the economy. This one-pager provides key value propositions for improving the connections between learning and work in data ecosystems.

Decision Makers, State Leaders & Decision Makers
1. Understand the Value

Credential Transparency State Partnerships Overview

State and regional partners are working with Credential Engine to use the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL) and publish data to the Credential Registry. Credential Engine’s technologies support numerous statewide priorities. This resource provides an overview of our current state and regional partnerships.

Decision Makers
1. Understand the Value2. Make the Case4. Catalog And Publish

Competencies and Skills: Publishing and Consuming

The Registry includes many thousands of open competencies and skills that can be reused and linked to credentials, programs, courses, jobs, pathways, and more. Publishing competencies and skills to the Registry enables linked open data alignments to occupational and industry taxonomies (such as O*NET and NICE), as well as frameworks from education institutions, industry bodies, and government agencies. These resources provide context for the value of publishing and reusing competencies and skills, as well as how to publish to the Credential Registry.

1. Understand the Value

Open Skills And Rich Skill Descriptors: CTDL Enables Connections And Collaboration Blog

With growing momentum for skills-based education and hiring, we all need to work together on shared solutions for more equitable ecosystems that enable everyone to have the skills necessary to thrive in a fast-moving and ever-evolving workforce. The Open Skills Network has advanced this work by releasing the open-source Open Skills Management Tool. The Western Governors University (WGU) Skills Library, developed by a team of experts, is now freely available. And the Credential Registry provides over 51,000 open skills from hundreds of sources, combined with valuable contextual information in the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL). We’re primed for innovation, with more great work underway, and you can contribute! We get a lot of questions about how to combine these solutions, so here is a concrete example and a what/why/how for using open skills collaboratively. Read the full blog to learn more!

Decision Makers
1. Understand the Value

Credential Engine and the Open Skills Network: Powering Connections in Learn and Work Ecosystems

The Open Skills Network and Credential Engine together support the development of rich, meaningful skills information publicly available and reusable on the web. The combination of data among connected skills, credentials, courses, and pathways from multiple sources is exponentially more powerful than information from any single source or system. And when all of this linked data is open, it can be used by everyone to support the needs of evolving learn and work ecosystems.

Decision Makers
1. Understand the Value

Fact Sheets

Learn about how Credential Engine is bringing transparency and credential literacy to the marketplace for different audiences including higher education, the business community, and certification & licensure. Follow the link below to view all of our fact sheets.

Decision Makers, Implementers, State Leaders & Decision Makers
1. Understand the Value

Roadmap to Credential Transparency

Supporting credential transparency efforts is key to building an education and workforce marketplace ready to take on the challenges of the 21st century economy. This roadmap outlines how policymakers and other state leaders can lead on these issues.

State Leaders & Decision Makers
1. Understand the Value

State One Pager

Learn more about how credential transparency and linked data can power better decisions in states for all learners and how Credential Engine supports states in this work.

State Leaders & Decision Makers
1. Understand the Value

The Learn-and-Work Ecosystem

Almost 1,000,000 credentials exist in the United States. It’s difficult to find relevant information about many of them, but The Learn-and-Work Ecosystem Guide, developed by the Lumina Foundation, highlights the many intersecting initiatives aimed at shedding light on the confusing marketplace and shows where Credential Engine and its technologies fit.

Decision Makers, Implementers, State Leaders & Decision Makers
2. Make the Case

State Project Summaries

Credential Engine currently partners with 19 states and the Los Angeles region. Prior to the annual convening of state partners in 2019, each state team that was able to attend wrote brief summaries of their projects–including goals, publishing methods, and priority use cases. This resource contains all of those summaries in one document.

State Leaders & Decision Makers
2. Make the Case

State Services Details Fact Sheet

Credential Engine has targeted expertise for helping states and regions benefit from credential and competency transparency. In addition to our open, freely available resources, we offer fee-based services for strategy, project management, and implementation support for using CTDL data effectively to achieve statewide and regional goals.

State Leaders & Decision Makers
2. Make the Case

Use Case Template for States

Once priority use cases have been determined, it is important to communicate the value and vision of this work. States can use this template or develop their own communications resources to share their goals widely.

Implementers
3. Align With Existing Commitments

Making Information About Credentials More Actionable Through Increased Transparency and Quality Assurance

Decision makers at all levels require quality data around job opportunities, skill and knowledge demands, and which credentials and pathways to pursue. Providing decision makers at all levels with frameworks to describe the attributes of a quality credential is one that requires partnership across state policymakers and with other stakeholders such as employers, education and training providers, advocates, and accreditors. The value of credential transparency rises exponentially when it includes assurances of quality.

Implementers, State Leaders & Decision Makers
3. Align With Existing Commitments

State Use Cases: Examples

Credential Engine's technologies can support numerous statewide priorities. This resource provides examples of how states have approached using a common language and open source, comparable data for use cases such as defining pathways, updating approving functions, identifying high value credentials, and others.

State Leaders & Decision Makers
4. Catalog And Publish

API Publishing Guidance

Use the Registry Assistant API Handbook to plan, test, and publish using an Application Programming Interface (API).

Implementers
4. Catalog And Publish

Completing Updates to the Currency Policy and Reports

Credential Engine created a new automated process for quality and currency controls that now generates detailed reports for Duplicate Resources, Broken Webpage Links, Resource Currency, and Incomplete Publishing, from the new Credential Registry Services page.

Implementers
4. Catalog And Publish

General Approaches to State Publishing

Credential Engine offers multiple options for publishing to the Registry. This guide outlines the publishing methods available and approaches states might take to utilize these methods for different processes and stakeholders.

Implementers
4. Catalog And Publish

Making Certification Data Transparent to Advance State Goals

In order to ensure that all certifications are found and connected, credential information needs to be made transparent through Credential Engine’s open source Registry. Credential Engine, its Certification & Licensure Advisory Group (CLAG), and its state partners ask that key information about certifications be made open and available through the Credential Registry.

Implementers, State Leaders & Decision Makers
4. Catalog And Publish

Minimum & Benchmark Data Policies

Credential Engine requires a minimum set of data to ensure consistency and usefulness of data published to the Registry, as well as recommendations for benchmark levels of data that can be published to support many use cases. Additionally, state and regional partners often choose to set their own policies to ensure consistency in the state.

Implementers
4. Catalog And Publish

Trusted Third Party Publishing Policy

Many state and regional partners have existing credential data collection processes; Credential Engine's trusted third party publishing policies are designed to streamline workflows for efficient publishing while ensuring buy-in and participation from credential providers.

Implementers
5. Make Data Actionable

Credential Transparency & P-20W Data Systems: Aligning Education and Employment Information to Meet State Talent Goals

It’s possible for states to have full transparency about both the skills needed for success in the job market and the credentials that signal competence and readiness for those jobs. But it only will happen if states employ better workforce and education data through P-20W data systems and adopt new technology that enables the data to be analyzed and made actionable.

Implementers, State Leaders & Decision Makers

Need Help Using This Toolkit?

This toolkit is designed to be used alongside our State Roadmap and Action Guide.

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