Integration Facilitates Sharing of Credentials Across State Lines

Two learning credential companies are working together to help states set up reciprocity agreements in credential recognition. Merit and Credential Engine said the tools they're making available to customers will help workers make sense of shared credentials across borders.

Merit produces a verified identity platform that helps organizations standardize and centralize digital records for professional licenses and qualifications.

Credential Engine makes software and resources to facilitate credential and competency transparency and interoperability, including Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL), a common language to describe credential information. The company also runs the Credential Registry, an online library that collects, maintains and connects information on all types of credentials; and the Credential Finder, which allows people to explore competencies, learning outcomes and occupations where they're used.

Under the new agreement, Merit's customers can incorporate CTDL to enable credential comparisons across state lines. According to the two companies, this is important as states build more reciprocity agreements, to help workers with certain credentials in one state transfer them to an equivalent certification in another state.

"We need to improve the professional licensing processes that the 40 million credentialed workers in the United States rely on, as well as the entire post-secondary and industry credentialing infrastructure," said Hannah Burke, Merit's vice president of government solutions, in a statement. "By partnering with Credential Engine, we're helping states take steps towards reciprocity, as well as helping people discover the full value of the credentials they've earned and where those skills can take them."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • modern college building with circuit and brain motifs

    Anthropic Launches Claude for Education

    Anthropic has announced a version of its Claude AI assistant tailored for higher education institutions. Claude for Education "gives academic institutions secure, reliable AI access for their entire community," the company said, to enable colleges and universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration.

  • laptop displaying a red padlock icon sits on a wooden desk with a digital network interface background

    Reports Highlight Domain Controllers as Prime Ransomware Targets

    A recent report from Microsoft reinforces warnings about the critical role Active Directory (AD) domain controllers play in large-scale ransomware attacks, aligning with U.S. government advisories on the persistent threat of AD compromise.

  • human figures surrounded by precise arcs with book and gear icons

    Kennedy-King College Rolls Out Holistic Student Support Program

    Chicago's Kennedy-King College is expanding student support services through a collaboration between City Colleges of Chicago and One Million Degrees (OMD), a Chicago-based nonprofit serving low-income community college students.

  • computer monitor with a bold AI search bar on the screen

    Google Reimagines Search with AI Mode

    About a year after launching AI Overviews in its flagship search offering, Google has announced broad availability of AI Mode in Search.