In a rare and potentially transformative partnership, the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor have announced a new initiative to create a national skills currency — a way to codify and verify what Americans can do, not just where they went to school. It’s an ambitious idea: if learning can happen anywhere, we should be able to capture it everywhere.
To back that ambition, the Department of Education is transferring $2 billion in workforce funding to the Department of Labor. This shift is more than a budget line — it’s a symbolic reorientation. Education is no longer just about degrees. It’s about readiness. And for the first time in a long time, federal policy seems to be catching up to what apprenticeship programs have known for decades: skills matter more than seat time.
A Vision That Aligns With Apprenticeships
As a field that champions earn-and-learn models, we at Craft Education see enormous promise in this move. Apprenticeships, whether in the skilled trades, healthcare, IT, or education itself, offer a rigorously structured path to mastery. They produce workers who can do — not just test well. But until now, they’ve remained second-class citizens in our national credentialing landscape. A well-built skills currency could finally change that.
Imagine a high school graduate who completes a youth apprenticeship in advanced manufacturing, earning certifications along the way. Or a para-educator in a rural district who apprentices into a full-time teaching role. What if their competencies — tracked in real time, assessed in authentic settings — could be instantly recognized by employers or colleges across the country?
That’s the vision. But the path to get there is steep.
Challenges: Definitions, Data, and Design
The first challenge is consensus. What is a skill, and who gets to decide? In apprenticeship programs, we know that competencies must be tightly aligned with real job functions. But translating that across industries, regions, and credentials will take coordination — and compromise. Without clear, flexible frameworks, we risk building a Tower of Babel: lots of data, no common language.
Then there’s the matter of interoperability. To truly empower apprentices and employers, this system must be portable, usable, and integrated. That means shared standards, open platforms, and thoughtful design. Many apprenticeship providers already struggle with fragmented reporting systems; the last thing we need is another silo.
We’re encouraged that this effort aligns with projects like the Workforce Data Quality Initiative (WDQI), and earlier pilots like the Credential Engine — but the scope here is national, and the stakes are higher.
Centering Community and Equity
Most importantly, this can’t be a top-down exercise. The success of a skills currency depends on trust — from employers, from workers, and from the intermediaries who run programs day-to-day. If the system doesn’t reflect the lived realities of how skills are gained and used, it will go the way of so many well-intentioned pilots: adopted in policy, ignored in practice.
The $2 billion question is whether the Department of Labor can steward this effort with both vision and restraint. Historically, DOL has been more attuned to market dynamics than the Department of Education. That’s encouraging. But it also raises governance questions:
- Will apprenticeships in rural and under-resourced communities be represented?
- Will small and mid-sized employers — who host the majority of U.S. apprentices — have a voice?
- Will this system be inclusive of nontraditional learners, including adults, career-switchers, and underserved youth?
These are not minor concerns. Apprenticeship works because it’s rooted in relationships: between mentors and learners, schools and employers, programs and communities. If we want a national skills currency to work for apprenticeships, it must honor that complexity — not flatten it.
Let’s Not Miss This Moment
Still, we’re optimistic. This announcement could mark a turning point in how America recognizes learning. For too long, we’ve overvalued where someone learned and undervalued what they know. Apprenticeships have always challenged that dynamic. Now, with the right attention and investment, they might finally get the national recognition they deserve.
Let’s make sure this doesn’t become another shiny federal initiative with little traction on the ground. Let’s make it work — for learners, for communities, and for the employers who need real talent, not just credentials.
Related Reading
- Partnering with the Department of Labor to Create a National Skills Currency (ed.gov)
- National Apprenticeship System Enhancements (DOL)
- Opportunity@Work: The STARs Movement
- What Is a Skills-Based Economy? (Brookings)
