An online, self-paced professional development program operated by the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN) to train educators, workforce leaders, and Human Resource (HR) professionals in competency-based education (CBE). Launched in 2025, CompetentU offers modular courses and a certificate that model CBE principles while providing practical skills in developing competencies, performance-based assessments, and personalized learning pathways. The program combines digital instruction with coaching and peer learning, enabling participants to design, implement, and scale CBE programs across educational and workforce settings.
In the learn-and-work ecosystem, multi-organization collaborations refer to groups of organizations that voluntarily work together—formally or informally—to pursue shared goals related to research, innovation, policy, workforce development, credentialing, and/or system improvement. Common characteristics include shared purpose and mutual benefit, cross-organizational participation, varying levels of formality, and may be ongoing or time-limited
Forms of multi-organization collaborations include:
Alliance – A collaborative partnership that may be formal or informal, often used as a flexible term for multi-stakeholder, cross-sector efforts focused on advancing shared missions.
Coalition – A group of organizations temporarily or permanently aligned to advocate for a policy, cause, or system reform.
Collaborative-A group working together on joint projects or shared objectives, often emphasizing co-creation or co-design. The collaborative often emphasizes shared ownership and work.
Consortium/Consortia– A group of organizations (often educational institutions, but can include employers, government agencies, nonprofits, and others) that voluntarily come together to collaborate on shared goals such as research, innovation, policy development, resource sharing, and/or joint programming. Consortia often have a formal structure, governance, shared funding, and clearly articulated objectives.
Network – A loosely connected group of individuals or organizations sharing information, best practices, or informal collaborations. They may be ad hoc, and have low or no formal governance
Partnership – Two or more organizations working together under a formal or informal agreement. Partnerships can range from simple agreements to complex joint ventures.
Task Forces / Blue Ribbon Committees – A panel of experts convened (typically short-term) to study or make recommendations on particular issues.
Shared governance is a collaborative approach to decision-making in which multiple stakeholders—including educators, administrators, employees, and sometimes students or external partners— work together to guide policies, programs, and priorities. In the learn-and-work ecosystem, shared governance extends beyond traditional higher education structures to include employer-educator partnerships, workforce boards, and intermediary organizations that work together to align education, workforce development and policy goals. Shared governance is also a widely recognized model of decision-making in nursing, between nurses and nurse leaders.
The shared governance model is rooted in democratic ideals and the value of participatory decision-making. While it has deep roots in the academic world, these models are also evident in collaborative management, worker councils, and co-determination in labor movements. Its extension into the broader learn-and-work ecosystem reflects growing recognition that no single sector can solve complex workforce and education challenges alone. Collaboration across sectors has become a practical necessity to respond to rapid economic shifts, technological change, and evolving learner needs. There are also increasing questions about the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in shared governance.
