Credly Joins the Call on Congress to Support Workforce and Skills Training

At Credly, we strive to create equitable access to opportunities for every member of the workforce. We do that every day by making skills more transparent, talent more visible, and opportunities more attainable.

We’ve recently taken action in a different way: Credly has signed a letter to Congressional leaders urging them to fund workforce development as part of COVID economy recovery. The letter was drafted by Workday, Autodesk, and the National Skills Coalition, and is signed by companies, trade associations, and other organizations who want to see a robust federal partnership around building the workforce we need to ensure a strong, inclusive U.S. post-COVID economy.

What drove Credly to join these organizations in signing the letter?

With a generational shift in occupational roles economy-wide and accelerated level of digital transformation brought on by COVID-19, we have dueling problems — workers unable to find good-paying jobs that fit their skills and employers struggling to hire skilled workers for in-demand and emerging roles.

“As organizations across all industry sectors take stock of who they are and how they will operate in the post-pandemic world, they are realizing that they must act with greater intention to achieve long overdue systemic change,” said Jonathan Finkelstein, CEO of Credly. “Organizations are arriving at the same conclusion: a skill-based view on sourcing and evaluating talent is essential to an equitable future of work. Making lasting change in the U.S. economy requires greater investment in resources for training and reskilling programs as well as true leadership and partnership among Congress and business in order to fuel long-lasting growth.”

Congressional investments in workforce training and support are essential to position workers for the new, skilled jobs that are going to be part of a different post-pandemic economy and to meet industry demand.

What specific actions does Credly urge Congress to take?

• Provide sufficient resources to support the demand for sector-based workforce training and reskilling programs that help bridge skills mismatch, including workers’ digital skill needs, while promoting more equitable economic mobility.
• Expand workforce training capacity by providing tax incentives for training programs led by industry, educators, and non-profit organizations and embracing flexible short-term and on-line training in key digital and emerging, in-demand skills.
• Drive informed training by growing real-time labor force data identifying economy-wide trends focused on emerging roles and the skills needed for in-demand jobs and high-demand sectors and measure the equitable impact of public investments.

At Credly, we're passionate about helping organizations speak the common language of verified skills so they can make better decisions based on what people can know and do. Interested in seeing the impact a digital credentialing program can have in your organization? Contact us to find out.