Learning and Working in the Digital Age: Advancing Opportunities and Identifying the Risks

The rapid expansion of new technologies into every sector has contributed to the proliferation of alternative models of education, learning, and skill signaling in global labor markets. From digital badges to bootcamps to learning and employment records (LERs), a wide range of public, private, and nonprofit initiatives and platforms have emerged to address ongoing demand for education and skills among employers and workers alike. This paper provides a high-level map of the landscape of education and labor market innovations in formal and informal education (including the workplace), with an emphasis on digital credentials and LERs. As technologies and their uses rapidly expand, the goal is to make the emerging digital education-to-career ecosystem more accessible to non-technical audiences and specifically to inform decisionmakers, such as labor and education leaders, worldwide about the promises and perils of these initiatives for expanding access to opportunity. The overarching research questions guiding this paper are: (1) What are the leading global initiatives currently underway to develop digital credentials and LERs?; (2) Where are they located?; and (3) Who are the main parties involved, and what problems are they trying to solve? This paper will also highlight some of the key tensions, risks, and debates that are arising related to digital credentials and hiring platforms.