LER STANDARDS & ECOSYSTEM
Learning and Employment Records: How the LER Ecosystem Works
Achievements should travel with the people who earn them.
Learning and Employment Records can help people carry evidence of their education, skills, and experience across schools, employers, and services.
Making that possible takes more than a digital credential. It takes an ecosystem of organizations, wallets, standards, and shared practices that make records understandable and useful wherever people go next.
What is a Learning and Employment Record?
A Learning and Employment Record (LER) is a digital record of a person’s learning and work-related achievements. It can include qualifications, skills, employment experience, and supporting evidence.
The broader LER ecosystem connects the organizations that issue records, the people who hold and share them, and the organizations that use them. Its aim is to make relevant information more portable across education and employment. Explore the T3 Innovation Network’s ecosystem map.
An LER may describe a single achievement or bring together several parts of someone’s history. Different implementations support different kinds of records and ways of sharing them.
What could an LER contain?
Depending on the system and its purpose:
- Degrees, certificates, licenses, and other qualifications.
- Courses, training, and assessed learning outcomes.
- Employment roles and verified work experience.
- Projects, accomplishments, and supporting evidence.
- Skills or competencies associated with an achievement.
- Information about the issuer, assessment, dates, and relevant requirements.
These records need clear provenance. A person’s own account of an experience, an employer’s attestation, and an independently assessed qualification provide different kinds of evidence.
A practical example
Imagine a worker applying for a maintenance position.
They have completed a technical program, earned a safety certification, and developed troubleshooting experience on the job. Today, those pieces may sit in a school portal, a training provider’s system, and an employer’s records.
An LER approach could help them collect and share selected evidence in one application journey. The hiring team could examine the sources, understand what was assessed, and ask more useful follow-up questions.
The value comes from making evidence easier to carry and evaluate—not simply collecting more data.
How the LER ecosystem works
An LER ecosystem is a network of participants with different responsibilities. One organization may perform several roles, and a single exchange may involve several technology providers.
1. Achievement providers establish what happened
Schools, employers, training providers, professional bodies, and other organizations teach, assess, supervise, or recognize achievements.
They determine what they can credibly attest to: completing a course, demonstrating a competency, holding a role, or meeting a certification requirement.
A useful record makes the scope of that claim clear.
2. Issuers create the digital record
An issuer turns an achievement or other claim into a record that can be delivered and used outside the original system.
The issuing organization and the technology provider may be different entities. The record should make clear who stands behind the claim.
3. Wallets and related services help people manage records
People need practical ways to receive, find, organize, and share their information.
For a useful implementation, the experience should address:
- Choosing which records to present.
- Understanding what will be shared and with whom.
- Accessing records across supported devices.
- Recovering access when something goes wrong.
- Moving records when changing providers.
- Getting assistance without unnecessarily surrendering control.
4. Receiving organizations put records to use
Employers, educators, membership organizations, and public services may request records to support an application, qualification review, advising conversation, or service.
Technical receipt is only one step. Someone must understand what the information means and how it fits the decision.
5. Shared services support discovery and trust
Registries, directories, competency frameworks, and related services can help participants discover credentials, identify issuers, or interpret requirements.
A public description of a qualification serves a different purpose from a private record showing that a particular person earned it.
6. Governance keeps the exchange working
Participating organizations need agreements about responsibilities, acceptable records, corrections, support, security, and continued operation.
Our recommendation is to design these arrangements alongside the technology. They determine whether an exchange remains useful after its first demonstration.
LER terminology: how the pieces fit together
| Term | Role in the ecosystem |
|---|---|
| Learning and Employment Record | The broader concept of a digital record documenting learning and work-related achievements. |
| Digital credential | A digital representation of a qualification, achievement, or other claim. Its technical capabilities depend on its format. |
| Open Badge | A standards-based achievement credential that can include the issuer, recipient, criteria, and evidence. |
| Verifiable credential | A structured set of claims with a mechanism for checking authenticity and integrity. |
| Comprehensive Learner Record | A standards-based record that can assemble multiple achievements. |
| Digital wallet | Software for receiving, managing, and presenting credentials. |
| Credential registry | A service for discovering information about credentials and related resources. |
| Competency framework | An organized description of knowledge, skills, or other capabilities and their relationships. |
These components can work together. An achievement badge may be included in a broader learner record and shared through a compatible wallet. Open Badges, Comprehensive Learner Record.
Which standards support an LER ecosystem?
Different standards address different questions. Choosing a credential format does not settle every question about meaning, exchange, or acceptance.
Credential structure: what does the record contain?
| Standard | What it contributes |
|---|---|
| W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model 2.0 | A common model for expressing verifiable claims and the relationships between issuers, holders, and verifiers. |
| 1EdTech Open Badges 3.0 | A specification for achievement credentials, including information about criteria and evidence. |
| 1EdTech Comprehensive Learner Record 2.0 | A specification for assembling multiple achievements into a richer learner record. |
Official documentation: W3C VC 2.0, Open Badges, CLR.
Shared meaning: what does the information describe?
Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL) provides a vocabulary for describing credentials and related resources, including learning opportunities, assessments, and pathways. Its companion CTDL-ASN schema describes competencies. These descriptions support discovery and connections between information held in different systems. Credential Engine’s CTDL overview.
Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange (CASE) supports the exchange of competency frameworks and their relationships. This can help systems refer to identifiable competencies rather than relying only on matching text labels. 1EdTech CASE.
Shared terminology still requires interpretation. Two organizations using the word “leadership” may mean different activities, levels of responsibility, or assessment expectations.
Exchange: how does information move?
An implementation also needs compatible ways to issue, request, receive, and present records.
Ask prospective partners which credential versions, exchange methods, and verification mechanisms they support. Then test the combinations you intend to use.
Trust and governance: when is a record acceptable?
Technical specifications do not decide which issuers your organization trusts, whether evidence meets a requirement, or who handles a disputed claim.
Document those decisions separately and make them understandable to participating people and organizations.
What does “verifiable” actually establish?
Verification can help establish the authenticity and integrity of a credential. It does not automatically prove that every claim is correct or suitable for a particular decision.
W3C distinguishes checking a credential from evaluating whether it is fit for a receiving organization’s purpose. W3C verification guidance.
When using a record, consider:
- Source: Who issued it, and what authority or experience supports their claim?
- Evidence: What was observed, assessed, or documented?
- Scope: What does the achievement establish—and what does it leave open?
- Currency: Is it still relevant to the requirement?
- Context: What else needs to be understood before acting?
For example, completing a leadership course and successfully managing a team are different achievements. Both may matter, but they answer different questions.
What can LERs help people and organizations do?
The following are practical applications to explore. Outcomes depend on the quality of the records, participating organizations, and how the information is used.
For individuals: carry progress into the next opportunity
People should be able to explain their achievements without repeatedly rebuilding their history from scattered accounts and documents.
An LER initiative might help someone assemble evidence for a job application, present prior learning to an educator, or bring relevant records into a career conversation.
The design question is whether the person can understand and use what they have—not just whether a record has been issued.
For employers: connect claims with relevant evidence
Hiring and workforce decisions benefit from understanding what someone has actually learned and done.
An employer might use selected records to support qualification checks, recognize internal capabilities, or identify what additional assessment or development is needed.
Start with a specific decision. Define what evidence would improve it and how employees or applicants can supply that evidence.
For educators: make learning easier to explain and carry forward
Educators can examine how their records communicate learning beyond a course title or final grade.
Potential applications include documenting experiential learning, supporting recognition of prior learning, and helping learners present achievements to employers or other institutions.
Receiving organizations need enough information to understand the achievement and its requirements.
For membership organizations: connect recognition with opportunity
Associations and professional communities may recognize qualifications, continuing learning, service, mentoring, or leadership.
A useful record can help a member communicate that recognition outside the original program or platform.
Begin by identifying where members need their achievements to be understood and which receiving organizations would find them relevant.
For public services: reduce unnecessary repetition
People moving between training, employment, and support services may repeatedly explain the same history or supply the same documents.
An LER initiative can explore how selected information could follow them through an agreed exchange.
Assisted access, appropriate sharing, correction routes, and clear responsibilities should be part of that design.
For technology providers: support a complete journey
Issuing software, wallets, education platforms, and workforce systems each contribute part of the experience.
For a practical integration, test what happens before and after the exchange: how records are selected, interpreted, displayed, updated, and used in the receiving workflow.
A successful technical transfer is an important milestone. The next question is whether it helps someone complete the task.
How the ecosystem has evolved
The history is best understood as several connected developments.
Making records digital
Digitization made it easier to store and send documents. It also created a new challenge: information held inside one institution’s system could remain difficult to reuse elsewhere.
Making achievements more descriptive
Standards such as Open Badges and the Comprehensive Learner Record provide ways to express achievements with structured information beyond a document image. 1EdTech Open Badges, CLR.
Making claims independently checkable
Verifiable credential standards formalize ways to express and verify claims. W3C published its Verifiable Credentials Data Model 2.0 Recommendation in May 2025. W3C specification.
Connecting participants into working ecosystems
The T3 Innovation Network’s ecosystem map organizes the roles and relationships needed for learning and employment records to move between participants. Explore the map.
Gobekli’s view is that practical adoption now requires sustained attention to the receiving end: what people can accomplish with the records and how organizations incorporate them into everyday work.
International developments: related goals, different systems
Portable learning records are an international concern, but initiatives differ in scope, technology, and governance.
In the United States, the T3 Innovation Network provides an ecosystem map for understanding participants and their relationships. Credential Engine develops shared descriptions that help people and systems discover and understand credentials. T3 ecosystem map, CTDL.
In Australia and New Zealand, My eQuals provides a platform through which participating education providers issue academic credentials and learners share them with receiving organizations. It is a concrete example of a multi-institution credential-sharing service. My eQuals.
These examples should not be treated as proof that all records already move freely between all systems. For any proposed exchange, verify the actual compatibility and acceptance arrangements.
What makes interoperability work in practice?
For planning purposes, we recommend examining four dimensions.
| Dimension | Question to resolve |
|---|---|
| Technical compatibility | Can the participating systems issue, receive, read, and verify the selected records? |
| Shared meaning | Do the participants understand the achievements, evidence, and requirements in compatible ways? |
| Trust and acceptance | Are the issuers and records acceptable for the intended decision? |
| Operational continuity | Can people and organizations keep using the exchange, including when records, systems, or circumstances change? |
An initiative may work in one dimension and struggle in another.
For example, a wallet might display a credential correctly while a receiving employer lacks a process for reviewing it. Or two systems might exchange a skill label without agreeing on the level of proficiency it represents.
Testing should expose these gaps before a wider rollout.
Designing for people, privacy, and continued access
Individual control needs to be visible in the experience.
Our recommended design questions include:
- Can someone understand the record and its source?
- Can they choose which information to share?
- Is the receiving organization’s intended use clear?
- What can the recipient retain after sharing?
- How are errors disputed or corrected?
- What happens if the person loses a device or account access?
- Can records move when a provider changes or closes?
- Is assistance available for people who cannot use the standard digital journey?
These questions deserve attention during planning, procurement, and testing. A sharing button alone does not answer them.
Where does AI fit?
Our recommendation is to treat AI as a possible assistant within a defined workflow.
An organization might explore using AI to summarize selected records, identify missing information, or prepare questions for human review. Each use should be evaluated against the evidence available and the consequences of an incorrect interpretation.
Keep a clear distinction between:
- What an issuer attested to.
- What a person added or explained.
- What a system inferred.
- What remains uncertain.
Gobekli’s Human Intelligence Layer approach explores how structured records and human interpretation can work together. People contribute the context behind achievements: how they applied knowledge, handled constraints, worked with others, and changed over time.
How to start an LER initiative
Choose one useful outcome
Define what a person should be able to do after the exchange.
For example: present a selected qualification during an application, share evidence for prior-learning review, or carry training completion into a workforce service.
Identify both sides of the exchange
Name the organizations that will provide records and those expected to use them.
Involve the receiving organization early so the initiative addresses a real requirement.
Define the records and requirements
Specify the claims, evidence, formats, verification methods, and acceptance criteria needed for the use case.
Walk through the human experience
Test receiving, finding, sharing, reviewing, and correcting records. Include accessibility, assistance, and recovery.
Test the participating systems together
Use representative records and realistic workflows. Document which combinations work and where manual steps remain.
Plan continued operation
Agree on ownership, support, funding, maintenance, partner onboarding, and exit arrangements.
Gobekli’s involvement in the LER ecosystem
Gobekli’s designs have been informed by participation in JFF interoperability initiatives and the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Experience You project.
During summer 2026, our work included a JFF/UOPX DoD interoperability project involving TalentPass, alongside development of TalentSync Recruiter.
These experiences inform our work on the relationship between portable records and their practical use:
TalentPass is our individual-facing product, focused on helping people collect, understand, and communicate their learning and experience.
TalentSync is our organizational product, designed to connect relevant information with organizational needs and workflows.
Passport Pages are designed to support permission-based connections between people and organizations.
Our products are at different stages of development. Project participation does not establish universal interoperability or availability of every described capability.
Our Experience You presentation
Watch our presentation for the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation and Education Design Lab’s Experience You project. This historical presentation provides context for the development of our approach.
Common questions
Is an LER the same as a résumé?
An LER can support a résumé or application with structured records and evidence. A résumé remains a selected presentation of someone’s experience for a particular audience.
Does an LER require blockchain?
No. The W3C Verifiable Credentials model does not require blockchain. W3C VC Data Model.
Will every wallet accept every credential?
Do not assume compatibility. Check the supported formats, versions, and exchange methods, then test the intended journey.
Does a digital credential prove someone has a skill?
Its meaning depends on the claim and evidence. Attendance, course completion, assessed proficiency, and demonstrated workplace performance establish different things.
Can someone include experience that was never formally credentialed?
An implementation may support self-described experience or other evidence alongside issued credentials. The source and verification status should remain clear.
Does an LER replace an HR, learning, or student information system?
An LER initiative should define how records interact with existing systems. It may support selected exchanges without replacing the systems that manage the underlying work or learning.
How should we measure success?
Choose measures tied to the use case: successful receipt and presentation, acceptance by the receiving organization, completion time, support needs, and whether the exchange helps the person take the intended next step.
Continue exploring
- Understand the participants: T3 Innovation Network LER Ecosystem Map.
- Understand verifiable claims: W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model 2.0.
- Explore achievement records: Open Badges and Comprehensive Learner Record.
- Explore credential descriptions: Credential Engine’s CTDL.
- Explore competency exchange: 1EdTech CASE.
- Explore Gobekli’s related work: Resources and use cases.
Earlier ecosystem snapshots
These visuals appeared in our earlier guide. They provide historical context; consult the linked organizations for current information.
Make records useful where people go next
A successful LER initiative connects an achievement someone can explain with an opportunity or decision where it matters.
Gobekli can help you clarify the use case, examine the requirements, and scope a practical path forward.