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Welcome to Transparency, Credential Engine’s monthly newsletter. This edition of our newsletter introduces and provides additional insight into our work with our partners, and how working with states, institutions, organizations, foundations, and others can further credential transparency. We thank those who support our mission and strive to make all credential data transparent and accessible.
Let us know if you're coming to DC for the ECS, SHEEO, or JFF conferences -- all in July! We'd love to connect with you while you're in town, email us at [email protected].
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In this second installment of our four-part newsletter series on the Credential Lifecycle, we explore the Planning and Connecting Phase. This initial phase ensures that credentials are designed to meet individuals’ and market needs, setting the stage for effective learning and career growth.
The Planning and Connecting phase involves the design and offering of credentials by education and training providers, professional associations, certification and regulatory bodies, government agencies, employers, and other stakeholders. This phase includes three key stages: creating credentials, marketing credentials, and enrolling learners. By leveraging the linked open data structure of the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL) across these stages, providers can ensure transparency, consistency, and interoperability of credential metadata across systems.
Let’s take a closer look at how the use of CTDL adds value in each stage:
Stage 1: Create Credential
By fully utilizing CTDL in the credential creation stage, organizations lay an information foundation for offering credentials that are meaningful, verifiable, and globally useful, ensuring that all pertinent details about a credential are comprehensively described and widely understood. Key credential characteristics, such as the requirements for earning the credential, its alignment with competencies, and regulatory approvals, shape its quality across all subsequent lifecycle phases.
In this stage, a globally unique identifier is created, called the Credential Transparency Identifier (CTID). This important identifier is used for unambiguously connecting credential information across lifecycle phases and publishing to the Credential Registry for open use by other systems, including AI tools.
Benefits of using CTDL in the credential creation stage include streamlined curricular workflows, establishing clear definitions of credential types, and alignment of the competencies and skills associated with credentials with work roles and occupations.
Stage 2: Market Credential
CTDL enables credential providers to comprehensively and openly describe their offerings, making crucial information accessible and clear. This enriched information can be integrated across internal data systems, the Credential Registry, career-planning applications, webpages, and many different types of AI analysis. By leveraging CTDL, providers can transform raw data into actionable insights that enhance program visibility and facilitate comparisons - aiding students, employers, and industry partners in making informed decisions.
Admissions and enrollment counselors, support services, and career pathways guidance are all empowered and optimized by the consistent and open data that CTDL provides in the market credentials phase, enabling more accurate suggestions for individuals.
Stage 3: Enroll Learners
When credentials are fully described using CTDL, prospective students can easily differentiate one from another and enroll in those best positioned to support their goals. Standardized credential information across providers enables clear comparisons of key attributes such as duration, cost, credential type, competencies, and employment outcomes. This transparency also helps align educational offerings with market demands and regulatory requirements, providing a competitive advantage in attracting top talent.
Publishing and consuming metadata from the Credential Registry using CTDL ensures data is consistent across a number of systems in the enroll learners stage of the credential lifecycle, including the CRM, registration, financial aid, student accounts, and student information systems. This metadata ensures accuracy and efficiency in prior learning assessment, credit evaluation and articulation, and access to financial assistance.
Call to Action
The Planning & Connecting phase is crucial for creating valuable credentials that meet market needs and align with industry standards. By leveraging CTDL, CTIDs, and the Credential Registry, providers can ensure that their credentials are transparent, consistent, and globally recognizable while empowering individuals to discover and enroll in programs that lead to their desired educational and career aspirations.
Next month we will explore the Learning & Education phase, where individuals acquire new knowledge and skills and are awarded credentials. In the meantime, for more information on how CTDL and the Credential Registry can add value to your offerings, visit our Credential Transparency Toolkit for role and use case specific resources to empower your credentialing journey
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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Walmart, and Strada Extend their Support of Credential Engine: Credential Engine is pleased to announce that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Walmart, Inc., and the Strada Education Foundation are continuing their support of Credential Engine’s work, mission, and vision.
Credential Engine was pleased to receive a two-year grant with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to work on a variety of initiatives, including working with a select group of state partners to publish equity, job skills, and pathways credential data using CTDL to the Credential Registry. In addition, the grant will support our continued exploration of AI supported tools and approaches to scale our ability to publish data while dramatically reducing the burden on providers, institutions, and systems.
We also received a new grant from Walmart that will focus on continued support for the adoption and expansion of CTDL data in LERs. We will also work with states and others to publish Credentials of Value, transfer information, and ETPLs. And we will work with C-BEN to publish competency and skills information via CTDL to the Registry (see below for more details).
We are continuing our work with Strada in support of LER adoption and expansion, the development and use of AI for credential transparency, and the exploration of publishing publicly available data from authoritative sources that significantly contributes to the benefits of linked, open, and interoperable data.
C-BEN and Credential Engine Focus on Competency and Skill Data: We are pleased to announce a strategic partnership between the Competency Based Education Network (C-BEN) and Credential Engine. This collaboration aims to enhance all skills-based ecosystems by integrating competency data from various sectors using the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL). This effort not only elevates CTDL as the preferred language for competency and skills data but also increases its public availability, benefiting all partners involved.
Through this initiative, C-BEN will improve credential providers’ quality assessments of competencies, enabling organizations to publish and rigorously evaluate competency statements in the Credential Registry using the Quality Framework for Competency-Based Education Programs. The consistent use of CTDL across various systems will help streamline the management of competency data, fostering a standardized approach to documenting and utilizing competencies that will impact both public and private sectors nationwide.
Chaffey College Integrates with Credential Engine: Chaffey College has partnered with Credential Engine to enhance the transparency and accessibility of its credentials by integrating with Credential Engine technologies. This project will enable all of Chaffey College's credential data to be made available in the CTDL, making comprehensive information about degrees and programs offered by the college accessible to students, employers, and educational partners.
"To align higher education with the needs of a rapidly changing society, we need interoperable data sources that detail the learning within our degrees and certificates. Our partnership with Credential Engine is a critical step towards achieving this goal across all curricula at the college, even as programs continuously update over time."
(Matthew Morin, Dean of Arts, Communication & Design and Work Experience, Chaffey College)
NICE Framework Components Updated in the Credential Registry: The most current data elements of the NICE Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity are now accessible in CTDL in the Credential Registry. This data structure serves as a significant resource for organizations aiming to develop, upskill, and cross-train employees in cybersecurity roles. It also improves transparency by allowing employees and job seekers to understand which skills and certifications are recognized in the cybersecurity field, facilitating better career planning and development.
The NICE Framework, developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), provides a structured way to categorize and describe cybersecurity work. By connecting to this framework in the Credential Registry, credentialing organizations can align their offerings with specific work roles, tasks, knowledge statements, and skill statements, ensuring these programs are relevant to cybersecurity needs.
Credentialing organizations are encouraged to review the NICE Framework components and consider how the NICE Framework can be integrated into their talent development strategies. This resource is intended to support the development of a skilled, diverse cybersecurity workforce equipped to meet current and future challenges.
To access the CTDL instance of the NICE Framework, please visit the collection page in the Credential Registry. For additional information and data formats of the NICE Framework, you may consult the NICE Framework Resource Center.
Enhanced Integration of CTDL in New Open Badges Standard Boosts Credential Clarity: 1EdTech’s launch of Open Badges 3.0 integrates the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL) directly into the technical specification. This advancement of including the CTDL simplifies data mapping processes and enhances the connectivity of badges through linked open data, enhancing the functionality and value of digital credentials significantly. Open badges have been traditionally challenging for employers to decipher due to the wide variety of achievements recognized. The integration of CTDL addresses this by providing a consistent language that describes the diverse aspects of credentials comprehensively, enhancing the understandability and value of credentials in talent acquisition systems. Employers can now access transparent and consistent information on Open Badges through the CTDL, allowing for a clear understanding of a person's accomplishments. To learn more about this work and how to include CTDL in Open Badges, click here.
Credential Engine Welcomes New Director of Finance and Administration: Kate Supple is the new Director of Finance and Administration at Credential Engine, where she oversees all financial operations including budgeting, financial reporting, compliance, and day-to-day accounting. She joins us from NIRH where she served as the Vice President of Finance and Administration. During her 14-year tenure at NIRH, Kate modernized financial systems and controls to create a path for sustained organizational growth. To learn more about our staff, check us out here.
Participate in the CTDL Vendor Assessment Tool Advisory Group: Credential Engine is kicking off its new Advisory Group focused on the upcoming CTDL Vendor Assessment Tool! We are developing a Credential Transparency Description Language Vendor Assessment Tool (CTDL-VAT) and looking for experts in the field to provide contributions to this open, collaborative process. The CTDL-VAT is intended to alleviate the confusion and misunderstanding that often plague first-time buyers and sellers of products and services supporting credential and skill transparency, including publishing to the Credential Registry, consuming from the Credential Registry, using CTIDs, and aligning with CTDL. Those involved in the Advisory Group will proactively share experiences with vendor selection processes, develop and comment on drafts of resources, and assist as needed with promoting pilot participation and ongoing use of the CTDL-VAT. Sign up here! Review the CTDL-VAT AG Charter here. First meeting kicks off June 25th.
New Resources Now Available on the Credential Registry Guidance site: Check out the newest resources now available on the Credential Registry Guidance site:
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Credential Engine Board Members Support Structured Data for AI: Two Credential Engine Board members, Su Jin Jez, CEO of California Competes, and Lee Lambert, Chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, sent letters to the Senate AI Caucus, the House AI Taskforce, and the Senate HELP Committee, in support of structured data for the benefit and deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Structured data, like the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL), allows AI systems to process and utilize information efficiently, allowing for improved performance and precision in applications such as career guidance and skills matching. We ask that as policies continue to develop for AI, everyone recognizes the importance of structured data along with organizations who are working to standardize information.
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Create Collections in the Registry: States and partners are encouraged to create Collections in the Registry. A Collection is a grouping of resources. As the name indicates, it is a resource that “collects” other published resources, such as credentials, learning programs, courses, or competencies.
A Collection is very helpful in giving context to resources in the Registry. State agencies and boards, educational systems, and other organizations are tasked with providing an approved list of credentials or learning opportunities, for instance, that are recognized by an organization or entity as meeting the requirements for some purpose.
Some examples of Collections of credentials or other resources include:
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Eligible Training Provider List, or ETPLs (example in Finder)
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Industry-Recognized Credentials (example in the Finder)
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Perkins Pathways
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Promise Scholarship
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Quality Assurance
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State Approved Postsecondary Programs
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Competencies (example in Finder)
Additionally, if you are consuming Registry data in student or learner tools, Collections will help you distinguish which credentials, learning opportunities, or other resources are actively part of a collection versus other resources that you - or your partners - publish to the Registry.
For assistance, please visit Instructions for Creating a Collection in the Registry or reach out to the [email protected].
Update to Florida Publishing: Credential Engine has been proud to partner with the Florida Department of Education to make information on credentials transparent and accessible for use in their Education Meets Opportunity Platform (EMOP). EMOP is an interactive analytics tool through which the Florida Department of Education and other state agency, executive, and legislative branch personnel can search for and acquire information on credentialing programs offered by Florida schools, colleges, and other eligible WIOA providers. Thanks to publishing from Florida Virtual Campus and FloridaCommerce, over 8,650 credentials offered by nearly 190 organizations are now available in the Credential Registry
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Invitation to Provide Input - CTDL Definitions for Education and Employment Outcomes Metrics: Credential Engine is enhancing data transparency for education and employment outcomes metrics to ensure that everyone—from educators and employers to policymakers and learners—has access to clear, actionable data for making informed decisions about learning and career pathways. Credential Engine is hosting a webinar on July 10th where we are requesting your expertise and feedback to confirm the proposed education and employment outcome metrics additions to the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL). It is not required to attend the webinar to provide input in this open, collaborative process.
This proposal complements the existing capabilities to describe a wide range of education and employment outcomes metrics, credentials, learning opportunities, competencies, assessments, jobs, pathways, and more. It refines the granularity of valuable data for greater clarity and transparency.
You can provide feedback by reviewing the CTDL Education and Employment Outcomes Terms Proposal and adding your comments or by reviewing the proposal and emailing [email protected]. You can also learn more and engage with the Credential Engine team in our webinar on this topic.
Register here today! Learn more about this opportunity here.
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New Jersey Pathways Summit 2024
June 12th - Atlantic City, NJ: New Jersey’s 18 Community Colleges and the New Jersey Business and Industry Association (NJBIA) hosted the NJ Pathways Summit where they focused on expanding innovative workforce and education partnerships. Credential Engine alongside the Indiana Commission for Higher Education jointly discussed at their session the best practices for Credential Transparency for competencies and skills and the benefits for students, jobseekers, and employers.
Annual Conference of the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) and Labor Market Information (LMI) Institute
June 12-14th - Norfolk, VA: Economic and workforce development professionals from around the county gathered to share research, resources and best practices in navigating data for economic success. Credential Engine facilitated several sessions that showcased innovative work on understanding occupational and industrial skills and sharing career information with students and learners.
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