The landscape of higher education and employment is undergoing a significant transformation. Traditional degrees and transcripts often fail to capture the diverse skills and competencies of learners, leading to the emergence of Learning and Employment Records (LERs), also known as Comprehensive Learner Records (CLRs). These digital records are redefining how we validate, showcase, and communicate learning and skills in an increasingly dynamic job market.
What Are LERs and Why Are They Important Today?
LERs are digital, verifiable records that document an individual’s education, skills, and work experiences in a structured and secure format. Unlike traditional transcripts, which focus primarily on courses and grades, LERs provide a holistic view of a learner’s competencies, skills, micro-credentials, workplace experiences, and other artifacts. They serve as an interoperable, lifelong record of individual learning achievements across institutions, employers, and industries.
A Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) is a type of LER that expands beyond formal education, incorporating co-curricular achievements, certifications, and skills acquired through work-based learning. Together, these records aim to bridge the communication gap between education and employment by providing a clearer, skills-based representation of an individual’s capabilities.
The demand for skills-based hiring is growing, with employers increasingly valuing competencies over traditional degree requirements. However, traditional transcripts do not sufficiently capture the nuanced skills gained through education and experience. LERs offer a solution that aligns learning with workforce needs, allowing for greater transparency and mobility in the job market.
Key Benefits of LERs for Higher Education and Workforce Development
Bridging the Gap Between Higher Ed and Employment. LERs help employers make informed hiring decisions by providing a detailed skills profile rather than just a list of courses completed. This makes it easier to match graduates with job opportunities based on their actual competencies.
Supporting Skills-Based Hiring & Career Mobility. In a job market that values competencies over credentials, LERs empower learners to showcase their skills in a verifiable and portable way. This is especially valuable for career changers, non-traditional learners, and those with micro-credentials.
Enhancing Lifelong Learning & Upskilling. As the nature of work evolves, continuous learning is essential. LERs serve as a living record of an individual’s skills, encouraging workers to upskill and reskill throughout their careers.
Empowering Learners with Ownership & Control. Traditional academic transcripts are owned by institutions, limiting accessibility. In contrast, LERs are learner-controlled, allowing individuals to share their credentials with employers, education providers, and other stakeholders as needed.
Advancing Equity & Access to Opportunities. By focusing on skills rather than pedigree, LERs can open doors for individuals who may not have followed a traditional academic path but have valuable experience and training. This can lead to more inclusive hiring practices and broader workforce participation.
LERs or CLRs?
While both Learning and Employment Records (LERs) and Comprehensive Learner Records (CLRs) aim to document and verify an individual’s learning and skills, my personal opinion is that the term ‘LER’ is gaining broader adoption due to its direct emphasis on the connection between education and workforce outcomes, making it more appealing to policymakers, employers, and learners navigating a skills-based economy. The LER nomenclature has these areas in its favor:
Stronger Workforce Alignment – The term “Employment” in LERs explicitly ties learning achievements to job opportunities, reinforcing their role in skills-based hiring and career mobility. In contrast, “Comprehensive Learner Records” (CLRs) emphasize the educational perspective, which may not resonate as strongly with employers and workforce stakeholders.
Policy and Industry Adoption – Government initiatives, workforce development programs, and industry-led frameworks (such as those from the T3 Innovation Network and Credential Engine) are increasingly using “LERs” to emphasize interoperability, verifiability, and employment relevance. This widespread use is driving standardization.
Learner and Employer Recognition – LERs provide a lifelong, portable skills record that is interoperable across institutions and employers. The term is more intuitive for learners who seek employment and for hiring managers who evaluate candidates based on skills rather than traditional credentials.
Technology-Driven Evolution – As AI-powered talent platforms, digital credentials, and blockchain-based verification gain traction, LERs are positioned as a forward-looking, standardized solution for recording and verifying skills in real-time job markets.
While CLRs remain an important concept within higher education, the market-driven demand for employability, skill-based hiring, and workforce adaptability will likely cement LERs as the dominant nomenclature in digital credentialing.
Emerging Trends in LER Adoption
The momentum for LER adoption is building. According to SmartResume’s blog on LER trends for 2025, there are several key trends indicating a shift towards widespread implementation:
State Investments in Skills-Based Initiatives
States are increasingly investing in skills-based hiring and education pathways, laying the groundwork for LER adoption at scale. For instance, California’s Master Plan for Career Education includes a “career passport,” a digital tool envisioned to integrate academic transcripts with verified skills and credentials earned outside the classroom, such as military experience. Similarly, Alabama’s Talent Triad combines an LER solution for state residents with a talent marketplace to match job seekers to employers.
Expansion into K-12 Education
The Comprehensive Learner Record is gaining traction in K-12 education, empowering educators to deliver personalized learning and create connections to employment and postsecondary opportunities. This approach aims to give students agency over their data, allowing them to communicate their value to employers even before gaining work experience.
Development of LER Ecosystems
An emerging ecosystem of organizations and companies is involved in issuing, sharing, and consuming LER data. This collaborative network is essential for scaling LERs and creating value for both learners and employers. The 2025 SmartReport provides an in-depth look at this evolving landscape.
The Future of LERs and Their Role in Higher Education
Higher education institutions are increasingly adopting LERs to better serve students and meet workforce demands. Organizations such as the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) and the T3 Innovation Network are working to standardize these records and ensure their interoperability across systems.
As more employers, policymakers, and educational institutions recognize the value of digital credentialing, LERs are set to become a cornerstone of the future workforce ecosystem. The ability to digitally verify and share skills in real time will create a more agile, transparent, and skills-driven labor market.
A Call to Action for Education and Employers
For LERs to reach their full potential, collaboration is key. Higher education institutions must work with employers, technology providers, and policymakers to standardize, adopt, and promote LERs as a mainstream credentialing tool. Employers, in turn, need to embrace skills-based hiring and integrate these records into their talent pipelines.
As we move toward a skills-first economy, LERs are no longer just an innovation—they are a necessity. Higher education leaders, workforce development professionals, and employers must embrace this shift to ensure that **learning counts, skills matter, and opportunities
Interestingly, higher education institutions are already moving ahead in this space. Some are creating a standardized digital credentialing system that leverages technology to improve the way academic achievements are recognized and utilized across the education and employment sectors.
For example, the Digital Credentials Consortium (DCC) is a university-led initiative founded by leading international universities, including MIT, to advance the use and understanding of portable, verifiable digital academic credentials in higher education. The consortium focuses on open-source technology development, research, and advocacy to design an infrastructure for digital credentials of academic achievement. Building on earlier work done at the MIT Media Lab, the DCC aims to create a trusted, distributed, and shared infrastructure that will become the standard for issuing, storing, displaying, and verifying academic credentials digitally. This effort addresses the need to rethink the way we recognize and transact with academic credentials in the digital age. The consortium’s mission is to develop an open infrastructure for academic credentials, enabling institutions to issue digital credentials that are easily shareable and verifiable. This approach enhances the portability and trustworthiness of academic qualifications, facilitating seamless transitions between educational institutions and employers.
Similarly, Arizona State University’s Enterprise Technology team and Digital Promise have already developed their own solutions on top of open-source software to bring solutions to market. Arizona State University’s SkillsFWD project connected Open Badge Issuing Platforms, CLR Issuing Platforms, and Credential Wallets and Management Tools, to a LER-Resume Builder to enable students to pull their LERs together from multiple sources, shape those into a SmartResume, and set up their job and recruitment preference in the Sun Devil Talent Marketplace. Launched in 2023 by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, with support from funders such as Ascendium Education Group, the Charles Koch Foundation, Strada Education Foundation, and Walmart, SkillsFWD is an initiative aimed at advancing skills-based hiring and economic mobility through the development and application of digital Learning and Employment Records (LERs).
At the high school to higher education transition, nonprofit organizations like the Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) is dedicated to transforming high school education by developing a competency-based transcript system. This system allows students to demonstrate their learning through evidence of mastery in various competencies, moving away from traditional letter grades and GPA systems. MTC’s work to create scalable, flexible learning records— Mastery Transcripts and MTC Learning Records – will dovetail as part of ETS’s joint Skills for the Future initiative with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
While it would be impossible to outline all the organizations, companies, and initiatives actively contributing to the development and implementation of Learning and Employment Records (LERs), this overview serves as an example of the many transformative efforts taking place in this space.
