"Stackable credential programs" are designed to make it easier for students to earn multiple postsecondary certificates or degrees in a field as they advance in their careers. To examine the stacking of credentials in Ohio and inform ongoing efforts to scale stackable credential programs, the Ohio Department of Higher Education and the…

There are nearly 1 million credentials in the United States that students and workers can take advantage of, but how information about these credentials is collected and communicated is oftentimes inconsistent and hard to access. In February, we invited a group of postsecondary and workforce development experts to consider how policymakers can…

The Multistate Longitudinal Data Exchange (MLDE) facilitates data sharing between states from K-12 education, higher education, and labor agencies. Its goal is to provide practitioners, policymakers, and researchers with a comprehensive data source to understand educational and career trajectories, including how these trajectories can cross state…

This report is the support document accompanying "An analysis of 'micro-credentials' in VET," which examines subject-bundle enrolments in Australia's vocational education and training (VET) system in 2019. This support document is a technical discussion of how the raw data were extracted and transformed for analytical purposes and it…

Economic downturns, like a global pandemic, magnify the need for timely, accurate, and complete data that policymakers need to make data-informed decisions that will help workers, businesses, and their communities recover. Good data helps to better understand what's working and what's not in terms of creating greater access to workforce…

Despite the growing demand and availability of non-degree workforce training, outcomes for these programs are mixed. For some, non-degree programs are a faster, more affordable pathway to a good job, and, more importantly, a career that offers economic security--they represent the future of education. But for others, non-degree programs are a…

Learning and Employment Records (LERs) require careful, deliberate design to ensure that workers benefit from their adoption and use. If designed without the inclusion of individuals who are most marginalized in the workforce, LERs could reproduce existing inequities in the talent pipeline. Digital Promise collaborated with workers in frontline…

Over the year, Advance CTE and the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) tracked state activity, cataloged final state policy actions and categorized trends based on the policy areas of focus and today, published State Policies Impacting CTE: 2022 Year in Review. This year's report provides an analysis that spans 37 states who…

Alignment between K-12 education and the workforce is critical because jobs are changing. Students must be prepared not only for the jobs of today but also for the jobs of the future. Securely linking data between state K-12 and workforce data systems can create a bridge between these agencies as they develop shared career readiness goals for…

Microcredentials create opportunities for continuing growth of all teachers based on specific needs. They provide ways for teachers to lead their own learning while allowing administrators to identify and address teachers' needs as well as the expertise teachers have to share with their colleagues. Microcredentials are different from traditional…

State policymakers recognize the economic imperative to ensure that education and training are connected to good jobs. Employers are seeking -- and are often struggling -- to hire appropriately skilled workers. For job seekers, the path to a good job with education beyond a high school diploma is certainly clearer than one without postsecondary…

Data and technology can be used for achieving many different objectives, and their applications should be driven by major stakeholder needs. Already there are emerging projects and innovations that will lay the foundation for a new public-private data infrastructure to produce a more dynamic and equitable talent marketplace. The launch of the T3…

Since 2016, the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative has been developing the Total Learning Architecture (TLA), a 4-pillar data strategy for managing lifelong learning. Each pillar describes a type of learning-related data that needs to be captured, managed, and shared across an organization. Each data pillar is built on a set of…

Learners of all types must be able to represent their achievements to prospective employers and education institutions to prove that they have the requisite knowledge and skills for success. The most recognized means by which students represent themselves is the credential. As in many other industries that engage with customers, partners, and…

The authors have developed a visualization tool to assist higher education stakeholders in exploring options in higher education performance and accountability. The tool allows users to visualize quickly differences between programs and institutions along a number of dimensions. This report draws five insights from the visualization tool: (1)…