Why Learning and Employment Records Are Higher Education’s Wake-Up Call

The Traditional Transcript Is Obsolete

It’s time to stop pretending a PDF of course titles and grades tells the whole story of a learner. It doesn’t. Higher education leaders must ask: Are we truly equipping students for a skills-first economy—or just handing them outdated credentials and hoping for the best?

Learning and Employment Records (LERs) force us to confront this reality. They don’t just modernize the transcript—they reinvent it for today’s mobility-driven, skills-based world.

LERs Are the Infrastructure for the Future

LERs are interoperable, machine-readable, and portable. That matters. Because the world of work moves fast—and student data can’t stay stuck in proprietary systems, PDFs, or campus silos. If a learner earns a skill badge on your campus, completes an internship off-campus, and finishes a certificate with a workforce partner, those credentials should talk to each other. Institutions that adopt LERs signal to learners and employers: We’re not here to gatekeep—we’re here to launch futures.

This Is About Power: Learner Data Sovereignty

LERs return control to where it belongs—with the learner. Students should be able to own, carry, and share their verified achievements across life transitions: college to career, job to job, or even back to school. Why are we still treating credential data like institutional property when it’s the student’s experience? Empowering learner data sovereignty isn’t just ethical—it’s essential for trust, transparency, and long-term relevance.

Better Data, Better Outcomes

With LERs, institutions don’t just track what students take—they show what students can do. This distinction drives clearer pathways, better advising, and stronger alignment with labor market demand. It also strengthens institutional effectiveness by making outcomes visible, measurable, and actionable. Are you ready to let data drive real decision-making, or are you content with vanity metrics and outdated dashboards?

Institutional Growth Requires Institutional Bravery

Implementing LERs takes leadership. It means bringing together provosts, registrars, CIOs, workforce leaders, and career services in one shared mission. It means changing systems that have been in place for decades. But the payoff is transformational:

• More relevant programs
• Stronger employer partnerships
• New revenue models
• A compelling value proposition for prospective students

If you want growth, you need credibility. And if you want credibility, your learners need proof of their value—proof that LERs can deliver.

What’s Your Move?

Presidents, provosts, and chancellors: are you leading your institution toward the future or waiting for someone else to prove it works first?

Career services and workforce leaders: how are you preparing students for an economy that values skills over seat time?

Institutional effectiveness teams: Are you measuring what matters or what’s easy?

Learning and Employment Records (LERs) are no longer a future concept—they’re already in motion. The real question is: how prepared are you to take the lead in this transformation?