Key takeaways
- Traditional transcripts capture academic performance but often miss skills, experiences and achievements developed beyond the classroom.
- Digital skills wallets help learners build a richer record of their learning journey.
- Learning and Employment Records (LERs) can help institutions better demonstrate learner outcomes and support transitions into further study and work.
Carie Addis, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Pearson
What’s missing from a traditional transcript?
Every educator can picture one: the natural leader whose transcript happens to show a B in history. The learner who builds remarkable things in robotics club but has no official record of technical skills. The graduate who carried a real-world project from start to finish, but whose resume can’t fully capture that blend of collaboration and analysis.
You see the potential. You know what they can do. The problem is that the document handed to learners at graduation — the transcript, the diploma — flattens all of it into a narrow snapshot.
For a long time, everyone downstream accepted the snapshot as shorthand. That acceptance is starting to change.
Why the snapshot stopped being enough
Two things changed at once.
Hiring shifted toward demonstrated skills. Employers increasingly want to know what a candidate can do and a course title alone doesn’t answer that question.
At the same time, AI made it easier to generate a polished resume and faked credentials. When claims become easier to make, actual evidence becomes more valuable.
For institutions, that creates a new challenge. The question is no longer whether learning happened—it’s whether your graduates can prove it, instantly, to anyone who asks.
What is a digital skills wallet?
A digital skills wallet is designed to help learners do exactly that.
It’s a secure, learner-owned record that holds degrees, certifications, project work, and applied skills in one place — while giving learners control over how those achievements are shared.
For a graduate, that might mean sharing proof of technical skills with a tech recruiter, a project management certification with a hiring manager, and a degree with a graduate school — each in a single, secure action, each independently verifiable. No transcript request, no waiting, no doubt about authenticity.
For institutions, it changes what a credential can represent. Instead of a grid of grades, your students leave holding a rich, verified record of what they have achieved, demonstrated and developed over time.
How do digital wallets benefit educational institutions?
The benefits extend beyond the individual learner.
Less friction at every handoff. Applications, transfers and workforce entry are still often slow and manual, built on records that are hard to verify. A portable, verified record removes helps simplify those transactions.
Clearer proof of learner outcome. When achievements can be linked to verified skills and experiences rather than course completions, you can see them — which programs produce which capabilities, where the gaps are, how investment maps to real student progress.
Learners who compete on proof. As hiring tilts toward validated skills, the institutions whose students can demonstrate capability hold a real advantage. The credential becomes something a learner can put to work immediately – a clear signal of its value.
How Pearson supports learner records at scale
Making this real takes more than a wallet app. It takes trusted credentials, open standards, and the scale to be recognized everywhere a learner goes.
Pearson brings those elements together through its credentialling ecosystem. Through Credly, Pearson has issued over 100 million verified digital credentials, helping learners capture and share achievements across education, professional learning, and workforce development. Built on open standards — including W3C Verifiable Credentials and Open Badges 3.0 — so they move with the learner rather than staying locked to a single system.
For institutions, that means the shift to a portable, verified record isn’t a leap into the unknown. It’s building on a standard that already works.
From transcript to lifelong learning record
The traditional transcript served its purpose in a world where a snapshot of achievement was enough. Learners today — and the employers waiting for them — need something that reflects how people learn, develop skills, and grow throughout their life.
A learner’s story doesn’t begin with a diploma and end with a first job. It continues through higher education, professional development, and lifelong learning. The records that support that journey should evolve as well.
The institutions shifting to this now won’t just be keeping pace. They’ll be the ones whose learners can prove their worth the instant they’re asked.
To see how Pearson is advancing digital skills wallets, verified credentials, and Learning and Employment Records, visit plc.pearson.com.