by Anthony Hennen
Pennsylvania’s public college system wants to make it easier for students to know what skills they need for the careers they want.
The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education announced its plans to build a credential registry, which lists the types of certificates, certifications, and degrees they can earn at PASSHE schools.
“Credentials add value to your resume by demonstrating to employers that you have the education and latest skills to do the job,” PASSHE Chancellor Dan Greenstein said. “Students and job seekers will be able to use the credential registry to understand the pathways to earn credentials that open doors to new and higher-paying jobs.”
Officials expect phase one of the registry to go live in 2024, with information on business, computer science, education, engineering, nursing, and social services programs. The benefits are expected to help working adults “who need to upskill or reskill to keep up with technology and automation.”
How useful the registry is could depend upon how businesses react, however, rather than what the university system does, according to the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity.
“More information about nontraditional educational opportunities is always welcome,” said Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the foundation who has studied the market value of different college degrees. “This effort will have the greatest impact if it enables employers to substitute inexpensive and shorter-term credentials for bachelor’s degrees when they advertise job openings.”
To build the registry, PASSHE will partner with Credential Engine, a non-profit that has done similar work with state university systems, boards of regents, and higher education agencies in 25 states.
“The end goal is to create a user-friendly online interface that shrinks massive amounts of credential information to pathways people could follow,” said Kevin Hensil, spokesman for PASSHE. “It will enable a person to identify a job, or a series of job advances, they want, and the credentials needed to get there.”
With more than 1 million existing credentials in the United States, that mass of information can get complicated and state agencies have different ways of approaching it, said Scott Cheney, who serves as CEO of Credential Engine.
“Our goal is to make sure that everyone can have full access to everything they need to know about all of those credentials: their quality, their outcomes, their pathways, transfer value, links to employer skills — so they can make the best decision, whether you’re a 27-year-old or an employer,” he said.
The registry pairs well with other state-level action. In January, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s first executive order de-emphasized college degrees as a job requirement, directing state agencies to remove degree requirements from 90% of its job listings, as The Center Square previously reported.
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Anthony Hennen is a reporter for The Center Square. Previously, he worked for Philadelphia Weekly and the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. He is managing editor of Expatalachians, a journalism project focused on the Appalachian region.
Photo “College Students Looking at a Laptop” by Christina Morillo.
