Largest Digital Credential Platform Enables Organizations to Publish Using New Markup Language

NEW YORK (PRWEB) DECEMBER 07, 2017

Credly, the nation’s leading platform for credential issuing, tracking, and management, today announced its integration with efforts led by Credential Engine, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving transparency in the credentialing marketplace. The collaboration will enable colleges, universities, businesses, and professional and trade associations to publish credentials in a common language called Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL). The adoption of CTDL facilitates unprecedented discoverability of workforce-relevant certifications, badges, and other verified achievements that emerge from learning, training, and workforce activities.

“Credly has been committed to open standard innovation since its founding. As education and training providers, associations, and employers rapidly move to a culture of recognition and ‘credentialing in real time’ to verify real-world skills, the demand grows for interoperable open standards that facilitate communication between different parts of the labor market,” said Jonathan Finkelstein, founder and CEO of Credly. “Our implementation of the new CTDL markup language shepherded by Credential Engine will allow organizations to publish their credentials in a way that increases their discoverability, transparency, and their value to those who have earned them.”

A tightening labor market means that while employers often struggle to identify individuals with the skills and competencies required to compete, 6.5 million Americans remain unemployed. Information included in the Credential Registry -- a cloud-based system that collects, maintains, and connects up-to-date information on credentials in the marketplace and demonstrates the potential of a common language to describe credentials through apps that leverage this new transparent data format -- will help employers understand the credibility of credentials presented by job seekers, students, and incumbent workers.

“Credly’s longstanding commitment to innovation continues with its early embrace of CTDL,” said Scott Cheney, Executive Director of Credential Engine. “By unleashing its platform to help credentialing organizations speak a common language, Credly is helping Credential Engine create an environment where verified achievements are readily recognized, stacked, and evaluated, and a diverse workforce has access to more opportunity.”

Organizations issuing credentials through Credly will be able to share an enhanced set of data when publishing using the CTDL format or choosing to make their digital credentials discoverable through the initial Credential Registry, providing greater transparency for those assessing their credentials. CTDL is currently being considered for adoption by Schema.org and the Worldwide Web Consortium, two international organizations that set the standards for the Internet and shared vocabularies for developers.

“We are excited to see these two partners come together to increase transparency and visibility for digital credential issuers such as ourselves,” said Charlie Wonderlic, CEO of Wonderlic. “The new integration and common credentialing language will make it even easier for our digital badges to be discovered on the web and for us to share the information of what makes our credentials valuable in the workplace.”

Credential Engine and Credly are both supported by Lumina Foundation, and share the foundation’s commitment to increasing the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees, certificates and other credentials to 60 percent by 2025 (known as “Goal 2025”). Credly was the first direct investment by the the foundation’s strategic social impact investment arm now known as Lumina Impact Ventures. Credential Engine is additionally supported by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Microsoft.

About Credly

Credly is a leading digital credential service provider, helping the world recognize lifelong achievement with the most popular platforms for verifying, sharing, and managing digital credentials and badges. The enterprise-class system allows organizations to officially verify skills and competencies; distribute portable and secure digital credentials and open badges; and gain actionable data and insights. Thousands of education institutions, industry associations, employers, and workforce development programs use Credly to make achievements visible. https://credly.com.

About Credential Engine

Credential Engine is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the mission of promoting transparency and credential literacy in the marketplace to reveal the world of credentials and inform the public.