I am delighted to be starting a new consulting project through Cetis LLP with the Credential Engine, helping them make credentials more transparent in order to empower everyone to make more informed decisions about credentials and their value. The problem that the Credential Engine sets out to solve is that there are (at the last count) over 730,000 different credentials on offer in the US alone. [Aside: let me translate ‘credential’ before going any further; in this context we mean what in Europe we call an educational qualification, from school certificates through to degrees, including trade and vocational qualifications and microcredentials.] For many of these credentials it is difficult to know their value in terms of who recognises them, the competences that they certify, and the occupations they are relevant for. This problem is especially acute in the relatively deregulated US, but it is also an issue when we have learner and worker mobility and need to recognise credentials from all over the world.
The Credential Engine sets out to alleviate this problem by making the credentials more transparent through a Credential Registry. The registry holds linked data descriptions of credentials being offered, using the Credential Transparency Description Language, CTDL, which is based largely on schema.org. (Note that neither the registry nor CTDL deals with information relating to whether an individual holds any credential.) These descriptions include links to Competence Frameworks described in the Credential Engine’s profile of the Achievement Standards Network vocabulary, CTDL-ASN. The registry powers a customizable Credential Finder service as well as providing a linked data platform and an API for partners to develop their own services–there are presentations about some example thrid-party apps on the Credential Engine website.
I have been involved with the Credential Engine since the end of 2015, when it was the Credential Transparency Initiative, and have since worked with them to strengthen the links between the CTDL and schema.org by leading a W3C Community Group to add EducationalOccupationalCredentials ot schema.org. I’ve also helped represent them at a UNESCO World Reference Level expert group meeting, helped partners interested in using data from the registry at an appathon in Indianapolis. I have come to appreciate that there is a great team behind the Credential Engine, and I am really looking forward to continuing to work with them. I hope to post regular updates here on the new work as we progress.
There are strong linkages between this work and the other main project I have on talent marketplace signalling, and with talent pipeline management in general; and also with other areas of interest such as course description and with work of the rest of Cetis in curriculum analytics and competency data standards. This new project isn’t exclusive so I will continue to work in those areas. Please get in touch if you would like to know more about partnering with the Credential Engine or are interested in the wider work.
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