Dive Brief:
- Digital credentials and learning and employment records aren’t being regularly used and haven’t been widely implemented in a way that works for employers, according to new research from 1EdTech, an organization that promotes technology in education.
- Even though the digital credentials themselves were considered valuable, employers referred instead to resumes and other forms of familiar background certifications when the digital information was unclear or inconsistent or had missing data, per one study from 1EdTech.
- Another 1EdTech study found that credentialing systems from education, employment and job platforms didn’t always work well together. As a result, a lot of companies ended up using a combination of tools, thereby making the process complicated and difficult to scale.
Dive Insight:
The widespread use of digital credentials, learning and employment records and microcredentials has been hindered by a lack of consistency and coordination across multiple organizations, per the research.
“If digital credentials are going to be adopted, they need to make hiring easier, not more complicated,” Michael Feldstein, chief strategy officer at 1EdTech, said in a statement.
Although many workers, especially in the technology sector, are expanding their skill sets in order to demonstrate their proficiency in emerging fields, many employers still aren’t able to accurately assess the value of these certifications. Instead, companies revert to documents they’re more comfortable with, which could render some of these digital badges irrelevant.
“Employers rely on familiar signals because they’re easy to understand,” Curtiss Barnes, CEO of 1EdTech, said in a statement. “Digital credentials can offer more detail, but only if that information is consistent and usable.”
The research suggested that digital credentials would be more useful if there were “a focused set of coordinated improvements” rather than a broad solution that gets layered over an already challenging system.
In order to make digital credentials more accessible to companies, the research suggested that credentials should be easier to find and understand, and that companies and schools should collaborate more to ensure the various platforms can work together.
“With better coordination, digital credentials could become a powerful tool for helping people demonstrate their skills and helping employers find the right talent faster,” the research said.
The problem has been long standing. A 2023 report Northeastern University found that even though employers want specific skills from applicants, hiring platforms don’t always offer a way to input microcredentials and other nontraditional skills, instead prioritizing standard degrees.