By the LER Accelerator Coalition
The world of digital credentials can feel overwhelming. Beyond wallets and badges, the alphabet soup of acronyms—LERs, CLRs, VCs—makes it hard for learners, employers, and even practitioners to talk about these innovations in a clear and consistent way. Yet at its heart, this work is about something beautifully simple: helping people tell their complete story of learning and achievement in ways that connect directly to opportunity.
Responding to a National Need
This challenge isn't confined to campus career centers or corporate HR departments. It's central to the national workforce transformation outlined in the Department of Labor’s and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation's . Both frameworks recognize the same fundamental barrier: today's patchwork of credentials and data systems creates confusion for learners, workers, and employers alike.
America's Talent Strategy calls for "worker mobility through innovative use of technology" and the creation of "integrated systems" to replace fragmented approaches.
The New Data Paradigm urges public-private collaboration to create a national data utility that places learners and workers at the center of a skills-based, data-driven talent marketplace, ensuring that they are served first, not last.
Achieving these goals requires not only new tools but also a common language that everyone can understand and use.
LER Accelerator Common Terms and Definitions
Clear communication isn't just "nice-to-have." It's foundational infrastructure for the skills-based economy. Without a shared vocabulary, even the best-designed systems risk confusion, limited adoption, and wasted investment. When institutions, employers, and technology providers can't speak the same language, we perpetuate the very fragmentation these national strategies seek to overcome.
The LER Accelerator coalition, 13 leading national higher education organizations, collaborated to develop a set of . The resource isn't another glossary for the field.
It's a practical response to what institutions and employers have asked for: agreed-upon language that supports both individual mobility and the broader transformation envisioned in the federal workforce strategy.
With clear terms, we can:
Strengthen partnerships between institutions and employers.
Enable worker mobility by making skills transparent and portable.
Guide technology investments that align with scalable, national systems.
Promote inclusion so all learners can benefit from skills-based opportunities.
Accelerate innovation by reducing confusion and building trust across the ecosystem.
Shared Language As Essential Infrastructure
By advancing this shared vocabulary, the LER Accelerator is helping to build the connective tissue that links campuses, employers, technology providers, and policymakers.
This is infrastructure in the truest sense: a foundation that supports transparent credentials, portable records, and inclusive pathways for every learner.
Together, we're not just clarifying terms. We're advancing the national workforce transformation, moving from fragmented initiatives toward a truly skills-based economy. One where opportunity is more accessible, mobility is more possible, and competitiveness is strengthened for the nation as a whole.
Get Started Learning a New Shared Vocabulary
Learn more about the LER Accelerator initiative and access the full resource.
For additional guidance on developing collaborative, equitable, secure, and interoperable credentialing systems, explore the and other key resources housed in the .