1. NCWE
Evelyn Ganzglass, Co-director Connecting Credentials
Susan Lupo and Audrey Theis
Corporation for a Skilled Workforce
Aimed at creating learning-centered credentialing systems
Equity/talent
October 13, 2016

2. Credentialing Landscape Credentialing Marketplace
Highly Diverse & Decentralized
Credentialing Marketplace
Many Types of Credentials
Schools
Industry Groups
Occupational Groups
Licensing Boards
Accreditors
and more . . .
Different Purposes
Different Quality
Different Assurance
Different Metrics
Difficult to Understand
Lots of Actors
Proliferation of credentials, especially certificates and emerging micro-credentials
Dead ends for individuals trying to navigate the system(s); lack of portability and clear pathways to advancement
Confusion and lack of trust in credentials among employers
Institutions and their quality assurers functioning in a more open environment. Trust transparency
Emerging innovations CBE, career pathways, credit for prior learning, on-line instruction; but far from scale.
Fragmented, multi-layered, complex “system” that doesn’t work well for individuals, employers, educators

3. Connecting Credentials
Action Plan Launch September 20, 2016
Field-Based Experimentation
Common Language
Use Tech & Real-time Data
Nimble QA Processes
Scalable Employer Engagement
Pathways to Increase Equity
October 2015
200 Leaders from 150 Organizations
100+ Co-Sponsors
National Summit
Work Groups
Collective Action Campaign
Credentials Framework
Goal
2025
Supported and facilitated by Lumina Foundation and Corporation for a Skilled Workforce
Lumina Goal: Increase the proportion of Americans with
high quality degrees, certificates and other
credentials to 60% by 2025
Dialogue to develop shared understanding of problem and vision of a more functional credentialing ecosytem

4. Goal is to build learning-based credentialing systems with the following attributes:
All learning matters wherever it’s obtained
All credentials are based on learning outcomes (competencies)
Credentials are portable, transferrable, transparent, useful and easily understood by learners, workers, employers
Credentialing pathways, including on ramps, increase access and equity for all learners
Helps learners, workers and employers make informed choices about their investment in and value of the credential they’re purchasing
Helps employers better qualify employees and reduce recruiting time, employee turn-over, and cost of retraining
Builds a competitive, highly skilled workforce
Dynamic system – agility to be relevant in rapidly changing labor markets
Learning-Based
&
Learner-Centered
All of the recommended actions in action plan are directed at creating a credentialing system with these attributes

5. Connecting Credentials
Collective Action Campaign
Engage Employers
Learners Empowered to Navigate System
Shared Understanding of Quality & Reciprocal QA Processes
Open, Interoperable Data & Tech Infrastructure
Common Language Centered on Competencies
Public Policy Advances Equity
Field-Based Development of Tools, Policies & Practices
Seven Areas
for
Action
7 mutually reinforcing priority areas of work for build a well-functioning and sustainable credentialing ecosystem
Simultaneous work is needed on ALL fronts throughout the ecosystem in postsecondary institutions, among employers, by accreditors, policy makers, workforce agencies and many other at the community, state and national levels.
25 recommended actions to build the tools, policies and practices needed to make diverse credentials work well for learners and employers
100 + specific ideas for what employers, educators, government agencies, communities, researchers, policy organizations, and funders at all levels can do to transform systems
Many examples of important building blocks already underway (more in related initiative database at )
Develop scalable ways of engaging employers in the credentialing marketplace. Employer engagement is critical to help our nation achieve educational equity and optimal talent development. Strengthening employer engagement is essential because it increases credentials’ relevance and value ─ for learners and employers ─ by aligning learning with labor market demands.
Empower learners to navigate the credentialing ecosystem. In the ever-evolving worlds of education and employment, individuals must understand where they stand and what their choices are in terms of learning opportunities, credentialing and employment options.
Develop common language centered on competencies. We must create a common language framework, one that is supported by technology platforms and is able to link all credentials. Such a framework can simplify communication among those who provide, earn and use credentials (e.g., postsecondary institutions, industry associations, certifying organizations and licensing agencies, learners, employers and other credential providers) and connect an individual’s learning across school, work and life.
Create an interoperable data and technology infrastructure. A well-functioning credentialing ecosystem requires a comprehensive open data and technology infrastructure. That infrastructure must capture what employers need through job ads and interviews, link data on all of the credentials awarded by providers to illustrate connections with other credentials and career opportunities, and enable individuals to manage their credentialing information.
Foster shared understanding of credential quality among stakeholders and reciprocity among quality assurance processes. We must increase transparency about credentialing quality assurance processes through the use of common language and concepts about quality. Such steps are needed to improve understanding of the value of different credentials; to increase trust in and use of different credentials; and to enable stakeholders to cross-reference different quality assurance processes to facilitate transfer and mobility within the credentialing ecosystem.
Pursue public policy that advances equity in the credentialing ecosystem. Federal, state and institutional policies influence how learners, employers, educators, quality assurers and others use and value credentials. These policies provide the incentives and sanctions that promote adherence to shared norms. These policies can either aid or hinder the development of credentialing pathways that enhance learner success. Policy drives funding for services, infrastructure, innovation, capacity building and evaluation. All are needed to create a more equitable credentialing ecosystem.
Promote field-based development of new credentialing tools, policies and practices. More than 125 initiatives are already underway that address aspects of the credentialing challenge. These islands of innovation need to be connected and leveraged –used to spur new innovations. Creative initiatives — well-informed by research — must occur at all levels to help inform policy change, build infrastructure, and increase understanding and ownership of a marketplace of diverse credentials.

6. Key Building Blocks Underway Employer Engagement
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Talent Pipeline Management initiative is leveraging lessons learned from supply chain management to promote:
employers’ use a shared language of competencies and credentials to better signal hiring and partnership requirements; and
new employer-led quality assurance process through which education/training providers can earn a preferred provider status based on their ability to meet the time, quality, and cost requirements of producing skilled workers for employer and/or employer collaboratives.
A lot going on in each of these areas
No one solution
These are just examples
At end will talk about your solutions
40 chambers of commerce and other business associations will be trained to implement such stragies

7. Key Building Blocks Underway Public Policy to Advance Equity in Ecosystem
Alliance for Quality Career Pathways Framework:
Provides a clear set of criteria and indicators for what constitutes a quality state and local/regional career pathway system
Provides metrics to assess participants’ progress across fragmented learning systems
Focuses on policies that improve system alignment
Supports continuous improvement of practice across systems
Serves as a collaborative, comprehensive strategy for policymakers and funders to align and enhance their investments, technical assistance and guidance for building and sustaining career pathway systems 
·        
*Developed by the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) in collaboration with10 states — and their local/regional partners
Arkansas, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin
Wisconsin’s Technical College System is using the Alliance career pathway metrics to design the performance dashboard for the statewide career pathway system they are developing with support from Wisconsin’s ACT2 TAACCCT exceeding the cap grant.  Their performance accountability system includes performance incentives for career pathway certificates and embedded technical diplomas. 
·Virginia built its successful Career Pathways for Individuals with Disabilities grant from the Alliance framework.
 California continues to invest in career pathways aligned with the Alliance criteria and accountability measures. 
     

8. Key Building Blocks Underway Tools to Navigate the Ecosystem
  Credential Transparency Initiative (CTI) is :  
Creating a voluntary, web-based registry that allows no-cost sharing of comparable information (using common language) from credentialing organizations about the range of credentials and how these credentials relate to each other
Testing practical software navigation and other applications for employers, students, educators and other credential stakeholders
New nonprofit Credential Engine to manage this development
CTI aims to increase transparency about credential quality a very opaque and confusing credentialing marketplace. /// competencies being represented by credentials, their portability in education and the labor market, labor market outcomes and quality assurance mechanisms.
CTI is working with nearly 100 colleges, universities and other credentialing organizations as pilot-site partners which are providing information about their credentials to the registry.

9. Key Building Blocks Underway Common Language
The beta Connecting Credentials Framework is an analytic tool that uses the common language of competency descriptors to help users:
profile the level and types of knowledge and skills associated with any credential; and
think through interrelationships among credentials
It is organized around two learning domains — knowledge and skills (specialized, personal, social) — and breaks out competencies in those domains into eight levels based on the relative complexity, breadth and depth of learning.
It currently is being field-tested in a variety of postsecondary education and workforce environments to enable credential mapping and stacking, program and credential development, competency-based learning assessment, and articulation.
Field tests include:
The Right Signals project, led by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) through which 20 community colleges are using the framework to support a variety of strategic projects including the development of badges, alignment of industry credentials to programs and courses, and the movement of competencies from non-credit to credit programs.
Capella University, which is using the framework to align Registered Nurse/Bachelor of Science Nurse Fast Track programs to produce a scalable and replicable taxonomy that will describe competencies at multiple levels and help in the production of electronic transcripts.
Additional field tests include work with state workforce systems, the U.S. Geospatial Foundation, and the SUNY system.

10. Discussion Questions
Which part(s) of this system transformation agenda resonates most directly with the challenges you face in your institution, community and/or state?
How can Connecting Credentials and NCWE support your efforts to build a more learner-centered credentialing system?
better articulation, transfer and credit for prior learning policies and practices?
Build professional capacity for assessment of learner competencies & career navigation?
Explore ways in which competency-based credentialing contributes to increasing student educational & employment success?

11. Connecting Credentials Framework
Functions as a reference tool to build profiles
Profile
Enables “apples to apples” comparisons within and across profiles
Analysis
Learning derived from profiling; making connections more explicit
Strategy
Actions taken to leverage learning
Connecting Credentials Framework
Value
Added
It’s important to think about the Framework as a reference tool that’s used in conjunction with a profiling template. When used together they help produce a standardized and scalable way to compare credentials. The analysis part of the process provides the value-add of profiling using the Framework. It helps show patterns, expose gaps, uncover opportunities in the design of curriculum or pathways or credentials.

12. Framework Applications
Credentials Framework
Pathways
Articulate
Credentials
Map
Stacking Credentials
Align
Competencies
Develop Programs
Align Assessment

13. Are you interested in field-testing the tool?
Discussion Questions
How can you imagine your organization using the beta framework to better connect credentials?
Are you interested in field-testing the tool?
Questions drawn from specific recommendations for what education and training providers and their associations can do to build learning-based credentialing systems

14. Connectingcredentials.org credentials@skilledwork.org
Visit our website and contact us:
@ConnectCreds
Thank You
Connectingcredentials.org
Refer to related initiatives data base
CTI Create voluntary, open web-based Registry, Develop common terms and metadata infrastructure for describing key features (properties) of: Credentials & credentialing organizations; Quality Assurance (QA) bodies;
test with 100 pilot-site partners & move to scale under acceleration plan under non-profit governance
20 community colleges field testing beta credential framework; demonstrating a new model that recognizes and sends the right signals about the importance of all kinds of quality credentials to employers, students and colleges
American Association of Collegiate Registrars & Admissions Officers, PESC C-BEN and IMS global collaborating in developing the underlying technical standards and testing prototype extended electronic competency-based transcripts.
Workforce Credentials Coalition (WCC) The Workforce Credentials Coalition is a coalition of twenty states that are working together to improve alignment between academic and industry-based credentials. Certification providers and student data (national student clearing house