Something has shifted in the credentialing field, and if you were in the room at this year's Badge Summit in Boulder, Colorado, you could feel it. The conversation has moved. We're past the point of making the case for digital credentials and learning and employment records (LERs). The field is now deep in the harder, more interesting work: building the infrastructure, trust, and shared language that makes any of it function at scale.
That's exactly where the T3 Network is, too — and our Mid-Year Meeting during the Summit reflected that moment.
From Concept to Infrastructure
Discussions got at some of the most fundamental questions in this space: How do we make sure that a credential earned in one place is recognized and trusted somewhere else? How do we build systems that give people, not just institutions, real ownership over their own records? And how do we create a common language around skills, so that what one employer or school calls "critical thinking" means something consistent across the board?
These aren't just technical problems. They're equity problems. When data systems don't talk to each other, it's learners and workers who pay the price — especially those navigating multiple institutions, career changes, or nontraditional pathways.
The New Data Paradigm is our framework for tackling that. At its core, it's about shifting toward a system where public agencies and private organizations work together to make hiring and career pathways more transparent and connected — and where people have portable, verifiable records of what they know and can do. Initiatives like LinkedCreds are already putting that vision into practice.
Colin Reynolds, senior director, strategy and impact, Education Design Lab.
Left to right: Jim Goodell, founder, INFERable; Jeanne Kitchens, chief technology services officer, Credential Engine; and Karen Passmore, CEO, Predictive UX.
Left to right: Madelyn Rahn, project manager, SkillsFWD; Nate Otto, technical lead, Skybridge Skills; and Robert Bajor, product design lead, Micro-Credetial Multiverse.
What the Field Is Telling Us
One of the most valuable parts of the day was simply listening. Across the room, for practitioners, technologists, state leaders, and funders, the challenges were consistent: mapping and sharing skills data remains difficult, states are taking very different approaches to building out these systems, and too often there's a gap between what a technology product promises and what it can actually deliver.
That last point is one the T3 Network is directly addressing. A new LER Self-Assessment Tool, demonstrated during the session, gives institutions and vendors a structured way to verify what a technology can genuinely do, moving the field away from taking claims at face value and toward a more accountable, evidence-based standard for how these tools get adopted.
A Next Chapter for the T3 Network
Perhaps the most energizing part of the day was the conversation about where the T3 Network goes from here. After years of incubating the tools, standards, and technology that underpin this work, we're entering a new phase — one focused on implementation, broader partnership, and showing up differently in the field.
We're still developing what that looks like, and we want to build it with our partners, not just announce it. But the direction is clear: the T3 Network's next chapter is about turning the infrastructure we've helped build into real, lasting impact for learners and workers.
More to come. In the meantime, we'd love for you to be part of the conversation.
Learn more about the T3 Innovation Network and email Amanda Winters to learn about how to get involved.
About the author
Joseph Davis
Joseph Davis is communications director at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
