This white paper published by the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board (AWPAB) Digital Infrastructure Working Group explores the Learning and Employment Record (LER) system, which contains verifiable information about a person’s academic, postsecondary, and industry achievements. Through LER systems, a learner’s achievements will follow them from one job or learning experience to another, employers will be able to easily verify the credentials and experiences of a prospective employee, and industry leaders along with education leaders will gain deeper insight into the specific skills that are represented by a degree or certification and how those skills align to career pathways.
To illustrate LER’s potential, it was piloted with three American companies – IBM, Walmart, and Salesforce. This white paper documents these company’s successes with LER and lessons learned. The white paper concludes with recommendations for policymakers, education institutions, and business leaders to move from limited pilots to fuller LER ecosystems. Such a system would require a strong governance and regulatory environment, meaning this resource would be most useful to state leaders interested in exploring the potential of a broad data ecosystem that can support learners, workers, and business industry.
