Our Work

Along with partners Corporation for a Skilled Workforce and George Washington Institute of Public Policy, Workcred focused on the current and potential roles for industry and professional certifications as a vehicle for increasing labor-market mobility to explore where certifications present the risk of being dead-end credentials that can limit access to opportunity, and how to instead ensure certifications serve as part of lifelong pathways for advancement.

Workcred, Dallas College, and Bufflehead Strategies, LLC are working together to support the development of high-quality apprenticeship programs in the United States.

Despite their prevalence in the workforce, there is no complete, centralized source of data on the outcomes or impact of certifications or other credentials. While there have been isolated efforts to collect this data by states, as well as self-reported data from certification bodies and other credential issuers, outcomes data are fragmented and incomplete. To help provide this much-needed transparency for certifications and other credentials, Workcred is working with certification bodies and other credential issuers to explore opportunities to link administrative data in order to improve understanding of the value of these credentials, the aggregate labor market outcomes of credential holders, and insights into credential pathways and career choices.

The U.S. manufacturing sector continues to be central to the national economy, and relies on a highly skilled workforce of more than 12 million workers. In order to more effectively use credentials and support a competitive manufacturing workforce, Workcred developed research to understand how manufacturing employers and workers value credentials, which credentials they value, and how they determine whether or not to pursue additional credentials.