Closing the Last Mile - Connecting Education and Employment with Verifiable Credentials
There are multiple challenges to the widespread adoption of the digital credentials—digital transcripts and diplomas—that AACRAO and its members have been adopting and implementing. The “Last Mile,” is one of these challenges that describes a learner's transition from education to employment, or an incumbent worker’s upward journey into a more meaningful and fulfilling career. To be most effective, digital credentials will need to be verifiable to both enable learners and job seekers to comprehensively share their skills and qualifications and for employers to trust the credentials. This is the system that the digital credentials consortium (DCC), a group of 12 leading research universities across North America and Europe are working to develop through open standards, open software, transparent systems and policies.
As we consider the changes this requires, we must ask, “what are the barriers to adoption that prevent educational institutions, technology providers, and employers from leveraging verifiable credentials towards closing the last mile from education to employment?” This is the question that some members of the DCC have been working to address through a research project that started in 2021 and a report to be published in Q2 2022. The research describes perceptions, opinions and concerns of various stakeholders and includes data from interviews with a number of key organizations including higher education institutions; credentialing platforms; Human Resource Management Systems; and small, medium and large enterprise employers. In this session members of the research team will provide key findings, describe the existing challenges, offer potential solutions to overcome the barriers that prevent more widespread adoption of learning and employment records, and stimulate a discussion of the steps colleges and universities can take today.
Which one or two theme(s) best describe the presentation? Digital Credentials (SPEEDE, Digital diploma, CLR, badging, OCR, etc) , Enterprise and Technology Systems
What Professional Application does this sessions apply to? Attendees will receive an overview of the benefits that open standard verifiable credentials offer in enabling student success in transitioning into meaningful careers, becoming familiar with the systems involved in the last mile from education to employment and how digitization is impacting the ways we express and verify achievements
Presentation Begins:
Wednesday, July 13, 2022 at 11:15 AM Eastern Time
Presented By:
Philipp Schmidt, MIT