As the nation continues to pull out of the economic recession and add new jobs, one of the main concerns for policymakers, students, employers and potential employees is whether our workers have the skills to fill the positions that are open.
Employers frequently evaluate potential employees by their credentials. Unfortunately, today’s world of postsecondary education credentials is a complex and confusing place, ranging from badges and industry-based certifications to two- and four-year degrees. Individuals are unsure what credentials to seek out, and employers are unsure how to evaluate all of these credentials.
What do all of these credentials really mean? How does one credential translate from one industry to another? Which credentials represent real quality, which ones are flimsy, and how can people tell the difference?
Despite this uncertainty around credentialing, many companies continue to compete for employees who hold certificates and degrees. In response to this demand and to improve their chances at getting on a career path, some job seekers have resorted to paying for fake qualifications. A recent story by Business Insider revealed that hundreds of people paid a company called Career Excuse anywhere from $100 to $300 to falsify credentials. Empty credentials were given, fake references provided. While this company’s approach is pretty deplorable, it’s clearly responding to a real need. Who you are and what abbreviations follow your name matter in the modern economy.
To address this quandary, Goodwill® is joining Lumina Foundation and nearly 50 other organizations to launch a “Connecting Credentials” initiative and associated website. Together, we plan to help people find meaningful information about credentials and make intelligent comparisons. The site is grounded in a beta Connecting Credentials framework that is structured to help build a common language about what credentials mean and what recipients can do with them, whether degrees or certificates, licenses or certifications, or badges or micro-credentials.
Later this fall, Lumina will be hosting, and Goodwill will be supporting, a national summit to explore key issues in the credentialing landscape. Together, we need to figure out how we can connect the fragments of our nation’s credentialing system. What solutions can we imagine to make them feel more whole?
Goodwill also supports Lumina’s efforts to build a prototype credentialing registry. Once complete, the registry will give users access to a huge database of credentialing information with the associated competencies, labor market value, transferability, cost to attain and quality.
As Lumina, Goodwill and our fellow organizations continue the project, we’d love to converse with other professionals in all sectors: public or private, or nonprofit or for-profit. For more information on the project, or to connect with us, visit connectingcredentials.org or find us on Twitter: @ConnectCreds
