See what's new with Credential Engine in "Transparency" our monthly newsletter. 

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Transparency
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July 19th, 2022

Welcome to the July 2022 edition of Transparency, Credential Engine’s monthly newsletter! As a subscriber, you are aware of Credential Engine’s Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL), a common, open language that supports cataloging, organizing, and describing credentials. Credential Engine follows a clearly defined, open process to make significant updates to expand and evolve the CTDL. This past month, the Credential Engine team and a dedicated group of partners, subject matter, and technical experts collaborated to work on complex use cases for progressing through pathways. We expand on this further in this newsletter, but if you are interested in participating in future conversations around expanding the CTDL, please do not hesitate to reach out!
Jump ahead:

> Spotlight (#Spotlight)
> U (#Updates) pdates (#Updates)
> State Connections (#State)
> Technology & Support (#Technology)
> News (#News)
> Events (#Events)


** Spotlight.
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On July 13th, Credential Engine brought together Dr. Deb Everhart, Credential Engine’s Chief Strategy Officer, Dr. Meena Naik from JFF, and Dr. Brian Tinsley and Dr. Kelly Page from Digital Promise for a webinar on Learning and Employment Records (LERs). LERs are digital records that document an individual’s employment and learning achievements, including in the workplace, through education and training, community activities, and/or military service. The webinar focused on what's possible and equitable and how to make LERs interoperable across data systems so that learners, workers, credential issuers, employers, and our economies and communities can all benefit. Everhart focused her presentation on the role of the CTDL with LERs, Naik discussed JFF’s Wallet Market Scan ([link removed]) and plugfest, while Tinsley
and Page focused on their LER Inclusive Design Principles ([link removed]) , the current work to adapt those principles to offer LER product certification, and answered the question of how might LER’s support more equitable and inclusive designs of learning pathways.

You can watch the recording here ([link removed]) if you were unable to attend the webinar.


** Updates.
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Staff Update: Credential Engine is excited to welcome Julia Gianoulis to the Credential Engine team! Julia will be serving as our new Accounts and Publishing Coordinator and will be providing support to a growing number of partners who are publishing data to the Credential Registry. Get to know the Credential Engine team! ([link removed])

[link removed] Success Plus Progress Report Released: In 2018, Governor Ivey announced the Alabama Success Plus initiative which aims to add 500,000 newly credentialed people to the population by 2025. Industry and government partners across Alabama have sought innovative solutions to increase the number of highly qualified workers with credentials. Now approaching the four-year mark, the Governor's Office of Education and Workforce Transformation requested a report from Credential Engine, which is partnered with Alabama ([link removed]) , and the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC) to assess the progress of the Success Plan. To read the Success Plus Progress report, click here ([link removed]) .

Credential Engine Welcomes New Board Member: Credential Engine welcomes Pima Community College Chancellor Lee Lambert to its Board of Directors. Chancellor Lambert brings deep expertise in the areas of education, employer partnerships, creative engagement of students to support equity, and collaboration with industry certification bodies to ensure relevance. Throughout his community college career, he has been an innovator in connecting industry and community colleges in order to revitalize communities through educational opportunities in an age marked by rapid technological and demographic change. With his addition, Credential Engine’s Board of Directors comprises members spanning education, workforce, human resources, labor, and policy. Read the full press release here ([link removed]) .


** State Connections.
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Each month, Credential Engine and our state partners meet to discuss updates and share their experiences with fellow states around credential transparency. Five states, Vermont ([link removed]) , Colorado ([link removed]) , Minnesota ([link removed]) , Alabama ([link removed]) , and Michigan ([link removed]) , recently presented their learnings, challenges, and approaches to communicating the importance of credential transparency, publishing to the Registry, working with institutions to collect data, and policy development. A resource for these states to follow and articulate their progress toward credential transparency is the State roadmap and Action Guide for transparency ([link removed]) , which highlights the steps
for state policymakers to help take the inefficiencies out of the labor marketplace and provide more efficient and equitable access to actionable information through the prioritization of credential transparency.

This month, we highlight Minnesota's work on Step 4 of the roadmap and Alabama’s work on Step 5 of the roadmap.
* Step 4: “Ensure this work is integrated with, complements, and strengthens quality, attainment, equity, access, affordability, and P-20W data efforts to ensure continuity and impact.” Leaders from Minnesota State shared how they are working to connect their Equity 2030 initiative to the statewide attainment goal. Equity 2030 aims to close the educational equity gaps across race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geographic location by the year 2030, and their attainment goal is to have 70% of 25-44 year old Minnesotans attain a post-secondary credential by 2025. They are aligning these initiatives with the work of the P-20 Education Partnership and the Governor's Workforce Development Board. Equity 2030 is a core value for Minnesota State to provide an opportunity for all Minnesotans.
* Step 5: “Inventory all credentials in your jurisdiction.” Alabama is in the process of developing a workflow to publish all credentials to the Registry. They are also working on layering in quality assurance to show learners which credentials have met the criteria outlined by the state. This also helps training providers see the value in sharing their information since they want the “stamp of approval” from the state.


** Technology & Support.
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New CTDL Pathway Constraints Terms June Release: The Credential Engine team and a dedicated group of partners and subject and technical matter experts participated in an 12 week process that ended in June to expand the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL) to support complex education and career pathways. Although the CTDL already supported publishing pathways, the Pathway Constraints Task Group ([link removed]) (PCTG) was formed to work on more complex use cases for progressing through pathways. The outcome from the PCTG is a CTDL Terms Release ([link removed]) that supports publishing pathways whether only a simple progression, a progression with conditions, or a more complex progression with conditions and constraints. To learn about the June 2022 terms release, click here
([link removed]) .


** News.
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AEI’s CERN Features Alabama’s Credential Transparency Work: The American Enterprise Institute’s CERN Network recently highlighted the great work being done in Alabama around their Talent Triad. Nick Moore pointed out the role of their Credential Registry, the CTDL, and the value of having occupational competencies published in CTDL to allow for skills alignment between credentials offered and earned and the on-the-job requirements of employers. Read the one-page summary ([link removed]) if you are not already familiar with Alabama’s initiatives.


** Events.
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Velocity Membership General Assembly ([link removed])
July 13th-14th. This event brought together workforce-tech industry leaders to accelerate the adoption of the Velocity Network, unleashing the full potential of the job market with verifiable career credentials. Deb Everhart presented on the valuable work of including meaningful CTDL data in Velocity credentials.

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