UPCEA Updates

September 17, 2025 marked UPCEA’s first-ever Virtual Forum on Employer Engagement and Credential Innovation. The event brought together senior leaders in professional, continuing, and online education to examine how institutions can strengthen partnerships with employers and scale credentialing strategies that align with workforce needs.

Framing Employer Engagement

The first spotlight session introduced an emergent University-to-Business (U2B) Engagement Framework, co-created by UPCEA Peer Learning Leaders as part of a Walmart-funded project on workforce-critical programming. This framework serves as the backbone for a new five-module course launched this fall to help institutions strengthen their employer engagement strategies. The conversations that followed reinforced a central truth: employers are most interested in the skills learners bring, not the labels on their transcripts. Building sustainable partnerships requires trust, shared investment, and long-term commitment, and institutions must communicate their value proposition in ways that resonate with business partners.

Institutional Cameos

Presentations from several Peer Learning Leaders including Brandon Chavez, University of California San Diego, Jocelyn Widmer, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Kristen Vanselow, Florida Gulf Coast University, illustrated these ideas in practice. The team highlighted its six-month development process for a course on Employer Engagement using human-centered design in U2B partnerships. Participants described anchor partnerships that helped reduce barriers and build credibility with employers. These institutional “cameos” gave attendees a sense of the creativity and variety already underway across the UPCEA community.

Breakout conversations followed and surfaced key themes:

• Employer Needs & Credential Value: Employers prioritize skills over labels.
• Anchor Partners & Organizational Barriers: Trust, investment, and long-term relationships are essential.
• Frameworks & Engagement: Structured approaches help reduce internal barriers.
• Value Proposition & Market Research: Institutions must clearly communicate their worth to employers.

Building the Ecosystem

The second half of the forum turned outward, featuring leaders from UPCEA’s Convergence 2025 promotional partners, each tackling different pieces of the learn-and-work ecosystem. Holly Zanville introduced the Learn & Work Ecosystem Library, which curates resources, glossaries, and even a new crossword puzzle series designed to demystify the often-confusing terminology of skills-based hiring. Naomi Boyer from Education Design Lab described the Lab’s efforts to bridge the language gap between higher education and employers, including the development of the Learning Mobility Framework. Michelle Van Noy from Rutgers University presented research on non-degree credential data, emphasizing the need for robust systems to track outcomes and prepare for Workforce Pell. And Gillian Walsh from the Digital Credentials Consortium shared updates on open-source solutions for verifiable digital credentials, including work on Open Badges 3.0 and AI-supported credential design.

Despite their differences in focus, the four organizations converged on common themes: making skills visible, reducing friction between systems, building trust in data and technology, and creating infrastructure that allows credentials to be both portable and credible. Together, they represent complementary pillars of the ecosystem, content, design, data, and technology, which are all essential for scaling adoption and sustaining employer confidence.

Reflections and Next Steps

Attendees expressed particular appreciation for shared resources such as the Learn & Work Ecosystem Library, which was described as transformative in its ability to centralize expertise. The discussions underscored how microcredentials can provide employers with clearer signals about learner skills, and how higher education can strengthen its value proposition by embracing new tools, frameworks, and technologies. Participants appreciated the chance to explore these resources in depth, and left with renewed energy for how these innovations can shape the future of work.

Looking ahead, UPCEA will continue to curate resources while Peer Learning Leaders will facilitate the inaugural offering of the U2B course, with future iterations planned for the spring. Those interested in engaging with employers are encouraged to explore the wealth of resources available on UPCEA’s website as well as those introduced during the session:

• UPCEA Study: Alternative Credentials – Business and Program Models
• UPCEA Playbook: Accelerating the Growth of Credential Innovation in Higher Education
• JFF: Budget Bill Expands Pell Eligibility
• SHRM Foundation: Skills First Futures
• Learn & Work Ecosystem Library
• LAISER (George Washington University)
• e-Literate: Digital Credentials, Workforce, and AI
• Research Article: Community Colleges and Workforce

The forum demonstrated that while institutions and partners are working on different pieces of the puzzle—whether through libraries, labs, frameworks, or open standards—the shared goal is unmistakable: to build trusted, scalable, employer-aligned credential ecosystems that prepare learners for the future of work.