Overview

In April 2024, the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN) launched the Center for Skills by C-BEN (CFS x C-BEN). Supported by a $1.5 million grant from Walmart, the Center will create and implement objective, reliable ways to assess and validate skills that can bridge the gap between education and the workforce. The aim of this work is to unlock economic mobility for millions of workers and learners who have been overlooked by traditional hiring practices.

Key activities:

• Convene industry leaders to create and implement a common vision for skills validation, verification, and innovation with a focus on reliable assessment and quality practices.
• Develop and deploy field-facing assessment practices in collaboration with cohorts of performance-based assessment innovators.
• Create state blueprints for new skills validation models and talent marketplaces, in partnership with a community of practice launched and led by the National Governors Association (NGA), to address worker shortages, while creating new opportunities for mobility.

This work builds upon C-BEN’s initiatives focused on skills-based talent development; for example:

• Illinois has used performance-based assessments to allow early childhood educators to demonstrate and recognize their knowledge and skills creating on-ramps and pathways to new roles.
• The Alabama Talent Triad has provided Learning and Employer Records (LERs) to more than 19,000 people, creating a seamless link between jobseekers, employers, and education and training providers.

Background

Interest in skills-based hiring is increasing. At least 20 states have made formal announcements to focus their hiring for some government jobs around skills rather than degrees; and nearly half of all employers have plans to remove bachelor’s degree hiring requirements for some jobs. Skills-based hiring continues to face significant challenges to employers, particularly due to issues in validating skills (difficulty of validating and translating skills between individuals, education and training providers, and employers).

C-BEN is a network of institutions, employers, and experts who believe competencies can unlock the future of learning and working to make education and training more flexible, responsive, and valuable. C-BEN supports stakeholders across the spectrum of competency-based learning, from institutions and employers who want to embed competencies into their existing programs to those looking to design full competency-based degree programs from the ground up.

Partners

• Education Design Lab
• ETS
• National Governors Association
• SHRM Foundation
• The Aspen Institute

References

c-ben.org/centerforskills