Publications and Events: Articles

Microcredentials: Credentials at the Speed of Business
Despite the large number of organizations issuing microcredentials (and presumably the even larger number of microcredentials awarded), there is very little transparency around or understanding of what the term microcredential means. In fact, a recent survey of U.S. adults revealed that three in ten do not know what a microcredential is, further highlighting this lack of clarity about the term microcredentials.

Three Perspectives on Workforce and Credentialing Trends for 2024
The new year is an opportune time to take a deep dive into key issues that will impact credentialing and the workforce. Three members of Workcred’s board of directors shared expert insights and perspectives on workforce and credentialing issues, as well as factors, such as emerging technologies, that are revolutionizing careers.

Shifting to a Skills-Based Workforce: Q&A with SHRM Foundation Program Director Clayton Lord
Much has changed in the hiring process over the past several years: recruiting has gone digital and organizations have shifted their focus to skills-based assessment of applicants to match candidates with in-demand jobs. In a recent interview, Clayton Lord, director of foundation programs at SRHM, spoke with Roy Swift, executive director of Workcred, about how employers are dismantling barriers to skills-based hiring, and how employers and job seekers alike can embrace this change.

Enabling a Skilled and Diverse Engineering Workforce with Non-Degree Credentials
The last decade has seen several innovations in engineering education. Non-degree credentials – stackable educational credentials that may be offered for credit or as part of non-credit programming – can enhance the educational opportunities for both degree-seeking and non-degree-seeking engineering students across their academic and professional career trajectories. Though still early in their development, non-degree credentials have the potential to broaden access to engineering, support the knowledge, skills, and abilities of diverse learners, and strengthen the engineering education-to-workforce continuum.

What’s in an Industry Certification or Designation?
Certification. Certificate. License. Designation. When it comes to educating and distinguishing yourself in a professional field, what’s in a credential? This article explains the various types of credentials, how they differ from one another, and the components that go into a certification program.

Supporting Employees and Employers Post-Pandemic with Skills-based Credentialing Programs: Q&A with Roy Swift, Executive Director of Workcred
As the economy continues to recover from the pandemic, employees are seeking to advance their careers while employers search for qualified workers. Skills, skills-based hiring, and the array of credentials have been the subject of many news stories and articles surrounding the burgeoning job market. ANSI’s affiliate organization Workcred focuses on these issues through its efforts to strengthen workforce quality by improving the credentialing system, ensuring its ongoing relevance, and preparing employers, workers, educators, and governments to use it effectively.

How Digital Credentials Are Transforming the Workforce
Digital credentials are poised to replace traditional resumes as the primary signal of achievement of learning due to their increased functionality. However, the ability of all learners and organizations to participate in the use of digital credentials is central to using this technology to change the talent marketplace. As secure, validated and immutable, digital credentials have the potential to transform the workplace of the future.

Certification-Degree Pathways: Aligning Undergraduate Curriculum to Industry Credentials and Professions
Recently published in Handbook of Research on Credential Innovations for Inclusive Pathways to Professions, this chapter focuses on creating certification-degree pathways as a new and emerging practice for the education-to-work ecosystem and provide insights on this new way of thinking about certifications and their inclusion in post-secondary curriculum. This chapter also contains an overview of certifications, an analysis of post-secondary curriculum, a detailed framework for embedding certifications into undergraduate degree programs, examples of certification-degree pathways, and future opportunities for research and the development of further pathways.

Everything You’ve Ever Learned
Learning and Employment Records (LERs) offer a promising solution to the challenge of capturing and communicating the skills of individual workers to a wide selection of potential employers, and they may equip employers with the tools necessary to maximize hiring, promotion, and upskilling. LERs are digital records detailing a person’s education, training, and work experience, and are verified through a distributed system similar to blockchain. At their best, LERs could form an “internet of skills,” empowering individuals to share their knowledge, skills, and abilities as well as showcase their professional accomplishments. However, because this technology has the potential to transform society, LERs require careful, deliberate design to achieve more equitable, socially desirable outcomes, rather than intensifying existing inequities or disproportionately benefitting one group over another. As the movement to create LERs and its associated standards takes shape in the United States, we must deliberately ensure that they serve the needs of all, particularly disadvantaged workers. Published in Issues in Science and Technology, Vol. XXXVII, No. 4, Summer 2021.

Increasing Value Through Certification and Degree Pathways
Certification and degree pathways offer higher education institutions an affordable, scalable approach to align degree programs with industry needs, and give employers a strong signal of an individual’s work-relevant skills. These pathways are a transformative approach offering students greater value – the analytical skills they need to be lifelong learners (degree) as well as the technical skills they need to immediately contribute as professionals (certification). And, aligned with both student goals and industry needs, they better position students in their field and give employers better prepared workers.