Overview

Postsecondary education and credentials are key to economic mobility for individuals and economic competitiveness for our nation. On average, workers with higher levels of education have higher wages, work more hours, and suffer lower rates and shorter durations of unemployment. Beyond degrees, professional certifications, licenses, and educational certificates have labor market value, especially for people without a bachelor’s degree and people with professional degrees. Motivated by this reality, a more diverse group of people is seeking a diversity of credentials to secure a foothold in the labor market, keep their existing jobs, and advance to better jobs in the continually changing economy.

Connecting Credentials

Lumina Foundation’s Connecting Credentials website—managed by the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce and CLASP—supports the national dialogue on credentialing and provides a robust collection of research and resources on credentialing in the U.S.

Other Resources

Scaling “Stackable Credentials”: Implications for Implementation and Policy
This paper summarizes the rising influence of “stackable credentials”, an emerging focus for state-led career pathway initiatives, aiming to facilitate education and training programs to best suit the ever-diverse workforce population. Drawing on previous best practices for career pathways programs, the report chronicles various challenges different state programs endure as they build upon and define how stacked credentials influence their local economic success.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due: Creating A Competency-Based Qualifications Framework For Postsecondary-Education And Training
This report provides a two-fold analysis of how to foster opportunities for nontraditional students to obtain credit from training opportunties. Initially examining systemic disconnects between both credit and non-credit programs, the paper provides additional recommondations for various institutions to adopt in order to increase awarded credit for nontraditional education and training programs. 

Call for a National Conversation on Creating a Competency-based Credentialing Ecosystem
A call for action, this collaborative paper analyzes the dangerous structural flaws of our current education and training credentialing systems, and labels the specific areas policymakers must target in order to reform this faulty system. 

Connecting Credentials: A Beta Credentials Framework 
Published in conjuction with the Lumina Foundation, this report provides a suggestive framework states and similar institutions can adopt in order to best streamline and improve a flawed credential awarding system.

Spotlight Webcast: Jamie Merisotis President and CEO of Lumina Foundation 
Jodie Levin-Epstein, director of CLASP’s Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity project interviews Jamie Merisotis, the President and CEO of the Lumina Foundation. Interview highlights include an indepth discussion of Lumina’s pledge to increase available crediting resources.