Digital Credentials and the Future of Work
By Danny King, CEO at Accredible
The way we work is evolving at an unprecedented pace, with changes across the technological, social and cultural aspects of our jobs and how they integrate with our lives. In the edtech sector, this transformation precipitates a need to focus even more intently on the future, so providers can prepare customers and their students for the demands of tomorrow. But what if I told you that “tomorrow” is already here? When we talk about the “future of work,” we’re really talking about what’s coming to life in the “now,” the trends and early successes that offer a hopeful glimmer of what’s to come.
For my company, Accredible, our hopeful glimmer is the job market’s shift towards skills-based hiring. Even as current economic conditions have lessened the number of opportunities available, this newfound emphasis on skills is shaping a more equitable labor ecosystem — and we have the privilege of helping millions of learners take advantage of this environment to get ahead.
Skills-based learning offers an alternative path to an extraordinary career.
What sets “skills-based learning” apart from other types? Simply put, it’s a style of learning that focuses not only on what you will know by the end of a course, but what you can do. And for many, it’s becoming the surest way to a stable, successful career.
This doesn’t mean a college education is obsolete. A college degree can be a vital foundation for creating well-rounded employees with strong critical thinking skills and unique knowledge sets. But nowadays, a Bachelor’s degree is often just the starting point for workers. Research shows that, on average, workers hold as many as 12 jobs in their careers, a stark increase from past job trends. This means that workers must constantly adapt and improve their skills over time.
However, gaining skills is only half the battle. The real challenge is in proving them.
I’ll start with my own story. When I applied to my alma mater, Durham University, the admissions board initially rejected my application due to my grades. But I knew I had what it took to succeed. I pushed back and fought for my place by demonstrating my passion and skill for computer science. A few years later, I graduated at the top of my class.
Truth be told, I shouldn’t have had to fight to secure myself a seat in the classroom. I should have had ways other than my transcript to demonstrate I was ready for university, that my unique skills could earn me a place, and that I would be successful.
I wasn’t the only student with a story like this. All over the world, there was (and still is) a growing need for verified credentials. People need ways to prove their credibility and skill that aren’t degrees, diplomas or references. It’s this need that led me and my co-founder Alan Heppenstall to start Accredible, where we’re working with our remarkable team to build the foundation for the world’s credentials.
There is no understating the importance of credentials in today’s skills-driven labor market. Digital credentials allow workers to keep a virtual portfolio of their skill verifications to act as proof of their proficiency for current and future employers. That way, there’s no question about their ability. In some cases, employees can even negotiate higher salaries and promotions by leveraging their credentials.
To this end, skills-based learning is about more than just giving learners new lines on their resumes — it’s about democratizing education and helping people unlock new opportunities that can change their lives.
In uncertain times, specialized credentials are key to stability.
Specialization will be a defining feature of the future of work. In times of economic uncertainty, with the threat of layoffs and furloughs ever-looming, employees will seek to reify their value at their companies by becoming irreplaceable, performing jobs no one else can do. Digital credentials offer workers the opportunity to not only learn new skills, but formalize their proficiency in existing ones.
They’re also key to starting the specialization journey in the first place. When people want to specialize, they typically think about what skills they need to obtain or improve to achieve that role. Digital credentials, with their powerful metadata that clearly illustrate the ROI of a course, offer the clearest path forward.
Once we pass this economic downturn, specialization will continue to be critically important. As technology advances and digital transformation reshapes the processes of entire industries, professionals will seek to assert their value and secure new opportunities by developing hyper-specific skill sets.
Digital credentials allow learners to develop skill sets for emerging and advancing professions.
In the current wave of digital transformation, knowledge work is becoming increasingly technical. The advent of generative AI in the workplace, while putting many jobs at risk, is simultaneously creating new roles — not to mention new requirements for existing ones — that require a particular technical skillset. These in-demand skills, which range from prompt engineering for content generation to quality control for automated data processes, plus numerous other emerging needs, show how advancing technology can uproot common business functions seemingly overnight.
To adapt, workers must learn to handle these new technologies quickly, which means that accessible skills-based learning has never been more important. Whether implemented as part of an internal corporate training/upskilling program or pursued independently, digitally credentialed courses offer the opportunity for workers to acquire new skills flexibly.
They also offer proof of these skills in an increasingly competitive labor market. Resume fraud is on the rise, and having verifiable digital credentials will make candidates more marketable while oiling the gears of the hiring process.
Jobs change — and so do dreams.
The pandemic and subsequent “Great Resignation” spurred millions to realign their professional purpose. For many, this meant a total career change, resulting in a need to obtain fresh skills (or sharpen old ones) to be competitive in a new professional arena. Meanwhile, some ascended from hourly to salaried positions, while others still fled the corporate rank and file to start businesses of their own.
But while the “Great Resignation” is squarely behind us, brought to a decisive end by the current downturn, the inspiration from these industry-jumpers and career trailblazers lives on. In fact, an economic downturn may be the ideal time for workers to pursue new skill credentials, and not just because workers may face increased competition at their jobs. Micro-credentials and digital certifications come at a far lower cost than an MBA or other lucrative graduate degrees, and they can be obtained a fraction of the time. The lower time commitment is a boon for those balancing a day job and personal life while chasing their next career move.
For many, the hardest part of continued learning isn’t choosing where to go, but knowing where to start. That’s why having centralized directories for credentials has never been more important; it’s one thing to search the web, and another to find the courses you need with all the critical information about its credentials, front and center. At Accredible, we’ve pursued this with the development of CourseFinder, a free-to-all directory of our partners’ verifiable digital credential offerings. On CourseFinder, users can see everything they need to know about a course in its profile, from cost to duration to even the salary range they can get from receiving a credential. In an uncertain world, being able to give people direction provides a world of value.
But even then, we knew a simple directory was not enough. After all, a single credential is only the beginning of a longer learning journey, and that journey isn’t always clear-cut.
Let’s look at a hypothetical path in marketing. At the entry level, an employee may start out as a generalist. In order to get a promotion, they might get a digital marketing certification. Then, as they take on more duties, the marketer may find they particularly enjoy the email marketing portion of their job, especially the data and reporting aspect. So, they pursue a certification in data analytics for marketing. So on and so forth, until one day, they become the head of analytics for a major marketing firm. But somewhere along the way, they might veer off course, and chase after something else. The river forks, every tributary leading to a new career.
This process of discovery forms the core of our vision for Pathways, which helps our partners create learning routes — formed of multiple credentials — that lead users to their goals.
Stackable micro-credentials and credential pathways add another layer of fluidity to skills-based learning, allowing learners to pursue their career ambitions one phase at a time. That way, if inspiration strikes and their plans change, they have the foundation to make a successful pivot.
Flexibility and stability are the defining characteristics of the future of work, and digital credentials offer professionals the opportunity to have both at once.
