As envisioned by Education Design Lab, a skills-based ecosystem is one in which skills-based programming leads to skills-based credentials. These credentials are then leveraged in skills-based hiring and advancement processes. Through such a system, college is reimagined as skills-based programming, which may but does not always lead to a degree. The degree is reimagined as skills-based credentials of all kinds — short-term, stackable, competency-based. Hiring systems are reimagined to be skills-based as well, matching the skills needed for a role with the skills possessed by a candidate. A trusted skills-based system must be validated; i.e., skills gained, credentialed, and then shared with employers, must first be validated.