It has been nearly four years since a report revealed that 6.6 million Americans who had attended college but didn’t graduate might have “stranded credits” — academic credits they had earned but could not use at another college because institutions were holding transcripts as collateral over unpaid balances.
The report led to an immediate uproar. Some institutions forgave all or part of the debts or released transcripts. Several states banned the withholding of transcripts. In October, new U.S. Department of Education regulations prohibited institutions from withholding most college transcripts for unpaid bills.
Dr. Amber Garrison Duncan
When students transfer to another college, for instance, they lose on average more than 40% of their credits. In many instances, students are charged for their transcripts, which means they must pay others for access to their skills and abilities when it should be theirs to share freely.
Moreover, institutions, employers and labor markets often don’t recognize the diverse and multiple avenues for acquiring knowledge and skills — such as work and military experience, community activities, short-term training, and other alternatives to traditional college programs — that take place outside of higher education. However, the solution is in sight.
Learning and Employment Records, or LERs, represent a comprehensive recognition of skills and capabilities that can help individuals stand out in the job market, organizations find employees with the exact talents they need, and states and localities build the workforces and industries they need to prosper.
Central to this work is giving the individual ownership over their skills. LERs are verified competency-based digital records that show not only the credentials someone earned or the places someone worked but also all of the knowledge and skills, both technical and durable, they acquired along the way.
