Stakeholder Insights on Skills Validation is a three-part series from Education Design Lab’s Center for Skills Validation. Each brief highlights actionable insights for all stakeholders, including policymakers, educators, and technology providers.
1. What barriers to adoption exist for different stakeholder groups?
2. What use cases exist for different stakeholder groups?
3. What are the leading value propositions for different stakeholders to adopt skills validation?
This inquiry culminated in a three-part series, with each brief addressing a specific question and offering actionable insights for key stakeholders.
Skills validation — the process of substantiating an individual’s skills through trusted methods — is foundational to creating an equitable, skills-based ecosystem. This shift is particularly urgent for STARs, who represent over 70 million workers in the U.S. but face declining economic mobility despite possessing valuable skills.
The first brief, Stakeholder Insights on Skills Validation: Barriers, focuses on identifying the barriers that limit the potential of skills validation.
The second brief, Stakeholder Insights on Skills Validation: Use Cases, explores how earners + employers engage with skills validation and uncovers opportunities to expand its use.
The third brief, Stakeholder Insights on Skills Validation: Value Propositions, explores the benefits of skills validation for both earners + employers.
This insights brief series has been authored by Nishita Chheda, Education Designer. Nishita applies her expertise in community and equity-centered innovation, mixed-methods research, and service design to advance skills validation initiatives at the Lab.
