A Vision for the U.S. Credentialing Marketplace

November 17, 2015

Today’s Credentialing Marketplace: A Confusing Maze

Today’s credentialing market is a confusing maze of degrees, certifications, certificates, licenses, badges and other microcredentials.

Students, job seekers, workers, and employers all struggle to understand. . .

What do these credentials mean? What knowledge and skills stand behind them? How do they relate to each other . . . to learning and performance . . . to employability?

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CTI Vision & Goals: A Coherent, Transparent Credentialing Market

The goals are transparency, clarity, and to align credentials with the needs of students, job seekers, workers, and employers.

1. Develop common terms for describing key features of: Credentials and credentialing

organizations Quality Assurance (QA) bodies

that accredit, endorse, or approve them

2. Create a voluntary, web-based registry and test it with roughly 100 pilot site partners

3. Develop and test software apps that facilitate use of the registry by guidance counselors, colleges, employers, etc.

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CTI Project Leadership

Slide 4

CTI is led by:

With support from:

• American Association of Community Colleges (AACC)

• American Council on Education (ACE) (Co-chair)

• Business Roundtable

• Committee for Economic Development of the Conference Board

• The Manufacturing Institute

• U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation (Co-chair)

Executive Committee provides strategic direction:

Credential Registry & Applications

Slide 5

Employer Signaling & Talent Pipeline Management

Competency Authoring

Credential Directory

Credential Transfer

Value

Credential Registry

Credential Directory AppStakeholders Can Use the App to:

• Identify credentials meeting user-defined criteria based on key features of credentials

• Compile customized lists and descriptions of credential based on search criteria

• Build customized, branded directories for different users based on their own criteria, without the need for continual, duplicative content development and updating

• Publish comparable information through public directories or through existing career and education guidance systems

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Credential Directory App

Registry

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What do stakeholders (employers, students, job seekers, workers, etc.) need to know about credentials?• The registry will include degrees, certificates, industry certifications, occupational licenses,

microcredentials• 28 credential and QA descriptors will establish a common language

Who will generate this information?

• Pilot-site partner organizations will post info on their websites in a formal language that ensures comparability, clarifying differences:• Universities and community colleges that award certificates, AA degrees, BA/BS degrees• Orgs that award industry certifications, certificates, & credentials such as licenses and badges• QA bodies that accredit, recognize, approve, or endorse credentialing organizations

How will this info get from pilot partner websites to users?• The decentralized, open registry uses Web 3.0 technologies to access and aggregate data• “Apps” will enable users to search for and view data according to their criteria• Open applications marketplace will generate competition, leading to better apps

A Credential Registry of Comparable Information

Descriptors: a Common Language

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Credential – Transparency and Portability Credential Name, Version,

Type Competency Requirements Type and Scope of Primary

Application Labor Market Value Credential Transfer Value Education and Career

Pathway Connections Eligibility Requirements Education and Training

Opportunities Credential Holder Profile Occupational Regulation and

Licensing Maintaining Credentials Credential Removal Credential Costs

Credential – Trust and Quality Competency Development

and Validation Assessment System Quality Assurance Authentication Version Management and

Control

QA Descriptors Purpose of the QA Body Scope of the QA Body Quality Criteria – Framework

for Evaluation Methodology to Assess

Outcomes Validity and Reliability of the

QA Process Ensuring Impartiality of the

Process and Managing Conflicts of Interest

Complaint Process Appeal Process External Validation Publicly Available

Information

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Pilot-Site Partners Receive Services

• Conversion of information in the credential and competency domain to machine and human readable/comparable formats

• Credential and competency metadata published to the Credential Registry• Use of the Credential Directory App• Personalized “Roadmap” document showing where they are now and what steps

can be taken to enable the W3C vision for linked data

How Pilot-Site Partners Participate

• Provide access to technical and program staff• Provide access to credential and competency domain information and data• Participate with scheduled meetings throughout the project period• Provide ongoing feedback• Participate in evaluation

Pilot Site Partners

Credential Transparency Initiative Collaborative

Stakeholder Advisory Council

Credentialing Organization Descriptor

Subcommittee

Executive Committee

Technical Advisory Committee

Evaluation Committee

Credential Transfer Value Subcommittee

Credential Directory Application

Subcommittee

Talent Pipeline Management and

Employer Signaling Subcommittee

Competency Authoring Application

Subcommittee

Quality Assurance Descriptor

Subcommittee

Credential Registry Pilot-Site Partners

Collaborative Committee RolesExecutive Committee • Provides strategic direction for the CTI

• Holds decision-making authority• Taking into consideration input gathered from the Evaluation Committee, determines

whether the project goes to scale

Stakeholder Advisory Council

• Composed of a broad array of stakeholder organizations• Provides key stakeholder feedback on all aspects of the initiative

Evaluation Committee • Develops the evaluation and data collection plan for evaluating the value and effectiveness of the registry and its applications for major stakeholders

Technical Advisory Committee

• Develops the technical design of the registry • Advises on implementation and improvements during the project period.

Credentialing Organization Descriptor Subcommittee

• Develops the final definitions and schema for each descriptor for credentialing organizations

QA Descriptor Subcommittee • Develops the final definitions and schema for each descriptor for QA organizations

Credential Directory Application Subcommittee

• Develops technical design documents for the Credential Directory Application• advises on how to provide an API for others to experiment with other credential

guidance applications (e.g., WIOA Eligible Provider Lists, State Licensing Directories)

Talent Pipeline Management and Employer Signaling Application Subcommittee

• Develops technical design documents and use cases for the Talent Pipeline Management and Employer Signaling Application

Competency Authoring Application Subcommittee

• Develops technical design docs for the Competency Authoring app

Credential Transfer Value Subcommittee

• Develops technical design docs and use cases for the Credential Transfer Value app

December 1 Collaborative Meeting• Plenary session of collaborative members• Committee meetings

1. Technical Advisory Committee and Credentialing Organization Descriptor Subcommittee

2. QA Descriptor Subcommittee3. Credential Directory App Subcommittee4. Employer Signaling & Talent Pipeline Management App Subcommittee

• Executive committee meeting

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Metrics for SuccessCTI evaluation committee is drafting criteria and metrics by which to measure the value, effectiveness, and success of the registry and its apps

• Collaborative to provide input at December meeting

• The criteria will help guide any corrective action or adjustments during the pilot, as well as any subsequent efforts to take the registry to full scale

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Next Steps• Finalize descriptors and coding schema

• Onboard pilot-site partners

• Stand-up the registry (estimated 2nd QTR 2016)

• Pilot-test, evaluate, and improve registry and credential directory

• Develop three other apps

• Evaluate value and effectiveness of registry and apps

• Bring registry to scale, if warranted

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2015 201707 10 2016 04 07 10 2017 04 07 10

Begin Collaborative and Committees.

Begin CR & CD Plan/ Design.

Begin CR and CD

Development.

Minimum Viable Product.

Run Pilot and Evaluation of CR and CD.

Complete CA, TPM/ES, and

CVT Plans.

Complete CR and CD Pilot

and Evaluation.

Technical and Design Documents: CR and CD (Aug 15 – Dec 15)

Recruit Credentialing and QA Pilot Organizations

(Jul 1, 2015 – Dec 2015)

Continuously Run and Improve Functioning of CR and CD (Feb 2016 – Dec 2017)

Collect Data on Participation and Use for Evaluation (Jan 1, 2016 – Oct 2017)

Plans Developed for CA, TPM/ES, and CVT (Jul 1, 2016 – Nov 1, 2017)

Final Reports

Abbreviations:Competency Authoring (CA)Credential Directory (CD)Credential Registry (CR)Credential Value Transfer (CVT)Employer Signaling (ES)Minimal Viable Product (MVP)Quality Assurance (QA)Talent Pipeline Management (TPM)

Establish and Facilitate Collaborative (Executive Committee, Stakeholder group) and all Sub-Committees (Jul 1, 2015 – Dec 2017)

Descriptor and Evaluation Committee Documents

(Jul 1 – Dec 31, 2015)

Implement Evaluation Plan (Jan 2016 – Oct 2017)

CR & CD Development MVP(Nov 1, 2015 – July 2016)

Work with 50-100 Credentialing and QA Organizations(Jan 1, 2016 – Sept 2017)

Maintain Website (Oct 2015 – Dec 2017)Launch Website

(Jul 1 – Sept 30, 2015)

Begin CA, TPM/ESand CVT Planning.

Project Timeline

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Questions

?Slide 16

Appendix

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Credential Directory AppStakeholders Can Use the App to:

• Identify credentials meeting user-defined criteria based on key features of credentials

• Compile customized lists and descriptions of credential based on search criteria

• Build customized, branded directories for different users based on their own criteria, without the need for continual, duplicative content development and updating

• Publish comparable information through public directories or through existing career and education guidance systems

Slide 18

Credential Directory App

Registry

Employer Signaling & Talent Pipeline Management App

Helps Employers:

• More clearly “signal” their competency and credentialing requirements

• Provide comparable information on competency and credentialing requirements for their jobs, and endorse or recognize credentials for these jobs

• Process and manage competency and credentialing information in job applicant tracking

• Helps employers source and manage relationships with credentialing organizations and related education and training providers in order to better manage their talent pipeline

Helps Credentialing Organizations:• In working with employers to validate the

required competencies in their credentialsSlide 19

Employer Signaling &

Talent Pipeline Management

App

Registry

Key Functions:

• Designed to support the easy review and analysis of competency-based resumes, transcripts, and portfolios

• Provides transfer value profiles of credentials based on new measures of declared and actual transfer value from multiple credentialing organizations

• Provides transfer value directories and comparisons based on search criteria

• Provides comparisons between recommended and actual transfer for recommendation services and credential transfer consortia

Slide 20

Credential Transfer Value

App

Registry

Credential Transfer Value App

Key Functions:

• Designed to aid colleges, certification organizations, and others in developing more transparent and assessable competency statements

• Provides authoring tools for writing and communicating competency statements, including grammar guides, feedback systems (e.g., rating “power of competency” statements), and competency frameworks and libraries

• Provides publishing tools for publishing competency statements on websites and registry

Slide 21

Competency Authoring App

Registry

Competency Authoring App

For more informationSteve CrawfordResearch Professor, GWIPP crawford@gwu.edu

Bob SheetsResearch Professor, GWIPP rsheets@gwu.edu

Roy SwiftExecutive Director, Workcred rswift@workcred.org

Roberts T. JonesFormer Assist Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor bob.jones@mtctrains.com

Jeanne KitchensAssociate Director, SIU Center for Workforce Development kitchens@siuccwd.com

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www.credentialtransparencyinitiative.org