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Advancing Competencies, Open Data, and Interoperability

Disclaimer: Resources are listed to provide information on competency models and their uses. The developers of the Competency Model Clearinghouse do not endorse, take no responsibility for, and exercise no control over the organization or its views or contents, nor do they vouch for the accuracy of the information contained on the destination server.

This page highlights some of the many organizations and initiatives working to advance open data and interoperability in the talent marketplace. Workforce information is more widely and readily available now than it has ever been, but getting the most out of that information can be challenging. From developing new technical standards to rethinking how learning is described, these organizations and initiatives are tackling many diverse challenges in the workforce information ecosystem.

Much of the data that could support new information-based tools and capabilities is either not published publicly or published in ways that make it difficult for automated systems, such as search engines, to find and use. Developing standards and practices that increase the openness, transparency, and interoperability of workforce-related data and systems is, therefore, critical to realizing the potential of these currently available and newly emerging technologies.

Competencies and competency models can play a valuable role in advancing open workforce data and interoperability by providing a common format for expressing the knowledge, skills, and abilities that workers have, employers need, and educational programs impart.

The CMC is working to make the Industry Competency Models on our site open and accessible and to share information about ongoing efforts to promote open data and interoperability throughout the workforce development system.

Explore the organizations below to learn more.

1EdTech

1EdTech, formerly IMS Global Learning Consortium, is a non-profit association that develops open standards that facilitate the private and secure sharing of data between educational software platforms and tools that are in use by institutions and learners for teaching, learning and credentialing. 1EdTech’s Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange (CASE) is used to publish machine readable versions of academic standards and workforce competencies. Many state agencies and other organizations freely publish CASE-based open versions of their learning standards through the 1EdTech CASE Network. 1EdTech's Open Badges and Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) are open standards for learner-centered Learning and Employment Records (LER's).

Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN)

The Competency-Based Education Network helps postsecondary institutions develop and implement competency-based education programs and works with other workforce and labor market stakeholders to support the use of competency-based approaches to talent development and acquisition. C-BEN works directly with colleges and universities to help them overcome the barriers to fully realized competency-based programs and build capacity around competency-based education. C-BEN maintains a Resource Library of research and best practices for the adoption of competency-based education practices.

Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL)

The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning’s expertise lies in performing credit-for-prior learning crosswalks in the development of career pathway models. Operating in this space has led CAEL to the viewpoint that prior learning assessments and competency-based education are two sides of the same coin. As such, CAEL is working with Title 1 providers to connect non-credit training programs to higher education.

Credential Engine (CE)

Credential Engine is a non-profit organization that supports a library of open and transparent information about credentials of all kinds. This library, called the Credential Registry, has detailed information about individual credentials provided by the institutions that offer them, including the knowledge, skills, and abilities they represent. Credentials can be linked to a variety of related records, such as education records, job descriptions, and competency frameworks. The Credential Registry can be accessed online using CE’s Credential Finder or by developers using CE’s APIs. To support the Credential Registry, Credential Engine also developed the Credential Transparency Description Language (CDTL), a common language to share information about credentials that is both human- and machine-readable.

IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA)

IEEE SA publishes a wide variety of technical standards, including its latest draft “Standard Data Model for Sharable Competency Definitions.” More information about the draft standard, including purchasing options, can be found here. 

National College Transition Network (NCTN)

The National College Transition Network works with the postsecondary education and workforce development communities on a wide range of topics, including professional development and student support services. NCTN recently launched the Personal and Workplace Success Skills Library, which is a curated collection of instructional resources and research. Through this work, the NCTN is building transparency by sharing best practices for education-focused competencies and skills in multiple contextual environments. Utilizing this information, NCTN will recommend resources such as pedagogy research explaining how different pathways impact the brain in different contexts and case studies for reference.

T3 Innovation Network

The T3 Innovation Network is an industry led effort to build and promote the adoption of technological infrastructure to facilitate widespread use of skills and competencies as a shared, open, and accessible language in the talent marketplace. Structured as a network of networks, the efforts of workgroups within the T3 Innovation Network include establishing technology-based standards and best practices, such as developing standards-based learning and employment records, or LERs, that document the skills and knowledge acquired by an individual over a lifetime of educational and workforce experience. 

One of the networks comprising the T3 Innovation Network is the Open Competencies Network (OCN). The OCN is a project to create a distributed library of open, human and machine accessible competency frameworks through its Competency Explorer portal.