✅ Inside this issue:

• Ian shares the stories that didn’t make the LER Ecosystem Report

• The Workforce Pell + data explainer worth your time.

• What the latest Jan 2026 hiring data tells us

INTERESTING READS

🏫 7 trends shaping 2026 could redefine funding, enrollment, and workforce alignment in higher ed.

🪪 A new Trusted Career Profile standard is tackling the resume chaos problem, so skills can actually travel.

📊 Pew is doubling down on quality non-degree pathways, with sharper focus on data, outcomes, and ROI for states.

ECOSYSTEM

The stories that didn’t make the report

Each year, I have the privilege of producing The LER Ecosystem Report where I talk with leaders across the ecosystem to understand their work— the inputs, the outputs, the motivations, and the friction points.

This year, I gathered stories from over 35 industry experts, sketched outlines, drafted, and then iterated and iterated again. Along the way, I collected far more examples of LER implementation than ever made it into the final report.

That’s the hard part of this report. A lot of meaningful work ends up on the editing room floor.

So I’m thrilled to be able to share a few projects I wish I could have highlighted more fully.

Badges as literal keys

Kerry Eberhardt told me about the work at The New Jersey Institute of Technology, where students train in a makerspace and apply their STEM and engineering skills to bring ideas to life. Each machine requires specific training, but tracking who is authorized to use what can be complex. Their solution? Issue training certifications as digital badges — and use those badges as the literal key to activate the equipment. I love the idea of badges as keys. It’s practical, elegant, and unmistakably tied to real-world capability.

Compensation tied directly to badge attainment

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints saw digital badging and asked a different question: How could this create global consistency across training programs?

They developed universal training categories — professionalism, vision alignment, learner-focused development, instructional excellence — and tied badge attainment directly to compensation. Melanie Cox explained that pay adjustments occur every four months based on evaluation criteria that includes badges earned. Imagine earning more because you earned and demonstrated more.

Learner mobility made real

The Arizona Learning Mobility Collaborative, supported by Strada Education Foundation, is taking a statewide approach. Jonathan Furr and Holly Custard described deep investments in shared definitions, policy alignment, and technical infrastructure to make learner mobility real. Their work goes far beyond transcripts. They’re building guides for scaling credit for prior learning and embedding multiple forms of evidence into a common currency of learning — one that works alongside, and sometimes beyond, the traditional Carnegie unit. The goal is seamless movement between community colleges, universities, and work.

Reducing friction = durability and reusable capability

I recently spoke with Tracy Korsmo, the architect behind North Dakota’s longitudinal data system. What he’s built isn’t a pilot or a proof of concept. It’s infrastructure. By wiring North Dakota’s P20W system into a statewide awarding service, he’s created the capability for any postsecondary institution in the state to issue Learning and Employment Record data at scale.

Every certificate issued can be read, registered in Credential Engine, transformed into an Open Badge or CLR assertion, and delivered through the state wallet.

One community college piloted. Another was live within a week.

His strategy is simple: reduce friction so thoroughly that institutions don’t need to go elsewhere. Build durable, reusable capability instead of one-off experiments.

The common thread

The promise of Learning and Employment Records is not about the issuance of credentials; it’s about creating value through what you can use these credentials to do.

I’ve recently started to use a driver's license as an example. Yes, a driver's license allows you to drive a car, but it also enables you to travel, check into hotels, board airplanes, prove your age and identity, and vote in elections.

That’s what I’m seeing across the LER ecosystem right now.

Movement is happening — not because of a mandate, not because of hype, but because thoughtful leaders are seeing an opportunity to reduce friction, increase trust, and create better outcomes for learners and workers. They are wiring systems together. They are aligning policy. They are experimenting, iterating, and making it easier for the next institution to say yes.

When I step back, what strikes me most isn’t just the innovation. It’s the people behind it — steady, pragmatic, and deeply committed to expanding opportunity.

The report can only capture so much. But behind every section is a person deciding to move this work forward.

And that movement feels real.

BY THE NUMBERS

The ratio of openings to unemployment is now below 2019 levels

Market leverage shifts to employers as today’s ratio reflects a rebalancing. Worker scarcity does not define the labor market in 2026; the balance is now tilted towards employers. Job searching remains robust, even as job openings have steadily declined. Wage growth is now subdued, and employers can be more selective in when — and who — they hire.

_{Source: Hiring Lab}

KNOWLEDGE

What to read, watch, and listen

📚 Read: Workforce Pell Is Here and Data Readiness Is the Real Test for Credential Innovation by UPCEA

In case you’ve been watching Workforce Pell roll out and wondering what the real hurdle is—this conversation makes it clear it’s about data. Leaders in credential innovation are sounding the alarm that noncredit and short-term programs need stronger data systems if they want to fully participate. If you care about learner mobility and funding access, this one reframes the conversation in a useful way. They also have an upcoming webinar on March 17th. 

📺 Watch: Workplace Trends 2026: AI Recruitment, Boomerang Hiring, and More on TODAY Show

LinkedIn’s Dan Roth unpacks what’s shaping work in 2026 from AI-powered recruiting to the rise of “boomerang” hires. It’s mainstream media, yes—but worth watching to see how skills, AI, and higher ed are being framed for a broader audience.

🎧 Listen: Coursera CEO Talks Udemy Deal, Skills Economy and Future of Online Education from After Earnings

If you’re tracking where the skills economy is heading, this conversation is a signal. Coursera’s CEO discusses consolidation, platform strategy, and what the next phase of online education might look like.

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