Employers and education providers can increase equity and access to opportunities for students entering the workforce. But, it will require intentionally designed systems and tools that help young people articulate their competencies to chart unique pathways to success. That’s where skills-based hiring — powered by learning and employment records (LERs) — comes in. LERs are digital records, commonly referred to as badges or digital wallets, of a person’s skills acquired through education, jobs, credentialing, and through service and life experience.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and skills-based hiring are rapidly transforming the hiring process, from how resumes are created and submitted to how they are evaluated. While AI tools streamline the job application process for candidates, they are also overwhelming employers and Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) with polished, but often indistinguishable, resumes with unverifiable information. We recently sat down with Dave Wengel, CEO of SmartResume, and Dr. Megan Workmon Larsen, director of learning experience design at Arizona State University (ASU), who shared their insights on the pros and cons of AI-enhanced resumes in today's job market.

SkillsFWD grantees are at the forefront of implementing learning and employment records that enable better communication of skills between learners, education providers and employers.  Through the first year of the SkillsFWD grant period, these grantees have engaged in a robust research and discovery process to document progress and reveal trends that may indicate effective practices that grantees and others in the ecosystem can leverage in their future work. A key part of this work is reporting on quantitative metrics documenting outcomes of their work throughout the grant period.