Key takeaways
- Workforce investments lose impact when employers cannot easily recognize or verify credentials.
- Digital skills wallets help connect education, training and employment systems.
- States that improve workforce visibility can accelerate hiring, strengthen labor force participation and improve economic growth.
Meg Maguire, State and Higher Ed Strategic Partnerships, Pearson
Why states need better ways to verify credentials
Every year, states invest billions of dollars in workforce development programmes, apprenticeships, education and professional licensing pathways designed to help residents build in-demand skills.
Yet many states struggle to demonstrate the full impact of those investments. Employers cannot always identify qualified talent quickly, learners face delays moving into work and workforce data is often fragmented across agencies and systems.
Consider Maria, who completes her CNA clinical hours on a Friday. She has done the work, earned her certification and is ready to start her career. But before she can start, her credentials must be processed and confirmed. What should be a straightforward transition can take weeks: Maria remains unemployed for that period, and a short-staffed hospital has to cover the gap with overtime pay for existing staff.
Maria's experience reflects a broader challenge. Pearson’s Lost in Transition research shows slow and inefficient transitions into work cost the economy more than $1.1 trillion each year.¹ Unemployed workers lose nearly $6,000 in wages, on average, waiting for skills to be verified. Employers lose more than $21,000 per hire when a vacancy stays open longer than it needs to.2 For state budgets, that's lower tax revenue, higher unemployment costs, and a labor force that looks smaller than it really is.
What is a digital skills wallet?
A digital skills wallet gives individuals a single place to access and share credentials, licences, certifications and other achievements earned throughout their education and careers.
Increasingly, these records are captured as Learning and Employment Records (LERs) – digital records that document skills, credentials, education, work experience and accomplishments across learning and employment.
Rather than relying on paper documents, emails or disconnected databases, digital skills wallets make it easier for individuals to present evidence of their qualifications when pursuing education, training or employment opportunities.
How do digital skills wallets improve workforce outcomes?
Digital skills wallets provide the infrastructure that allows credential records to be securely stored, shared, and used across systems. Just as roads and broadband connect people and ideas, digital skills wallets connect talent to opportunity. It's infrastructure that is built once, maintained centrally, and used everywhere.
Because when credential information is easier to access and understand, employers can make hiring decisions more quickly. Learners can move through transitions with fewer administrative barriers. Workforce agencies gain clearer visibility into program outcomes and labor market needs.
Better information supports better workforce planning, economic mobility, more efficient hiring and a clearer understanding of where skills exist within a state economy.
The goal is not to create new credentials. It is to ensure that the achievements people have already earned can be recognized and used more effectively, and that the money states have already spent on training can be realized into earnings faster.
How states are using digital skills wallets today
States are already exploring different approaches.
Some are connecting skills data to talent marketplaces and job-matching tools. Others are bringing transcripts, licenses and workforce credentials together into a single resident-owned record. Increasingly, these initiatives are designed to work across institutions and agencies, reducing duplication and improving access to information.
While approaches vary, the objective remains consistent: help residents connect to opportunity faster and give employers better visibility into the skills of available talent.
What state leaders should consider next
Building modern workforce infrastructure requires coordination across government agencies, educational institutions, licensing bodies and employers.
Pearson helps support the systems that allow skills and credential data to move more effectively across workforce ecosystems. But lasting progress depends on leadership at the state level.
States that invest now will be better positioned to understand workforce capability, reduce hiring friction and strengthen connections between learning and earning.
The future of workforce development is ensuring the skills people gain can be recognized, understood and acted on fast when opportunities arise.
Curious how this fits your state's workforce strategy? Talk to our team.
¹ Pearson. Lost in Transition: Fixing the Learn-to-Work Ecosystem (2025). Source for the estimate that more than $1.1 trillion is lost annually due to inefficiencies in the transition from learning to work.
2 Pearson. Lost in Transition: Fixing the Learn-to-Work Ecosystem (2025). Source for estimates that workers can lose nearly $6,000 in wages due to delays in credential verification and employers can incur more than $21,000 in costs from prolonged vacancies.
FAQs
What is a digital skills wallet in a state workforce system? A digital skills wallet is a secure, portable record that allows residents to store and share verified credentials across education, training, and employment. It connects data from multiple sources — such as colleges, licensing boards, and workforce programs — into a single, trusted record.
What are Learning and Employment Records (LERs)? LERs are verified digital records that document an individual's skills, credentials, education, workforce experiences, and achievements. They can be securely stored and shared through a digital wallet, making it easier for residents to demonstrate what they know and can do.
Why are states investing in skills-based infrastructure now? States are under pressure to show stronger returns on workforce investments while helping employers fill roles faster. When skills are difficult to verify or share, it slows hiring and limits visibility into available talent, weakening overall economic impact.
How do digital wallets improve workforce and economic outcomes? Making skills data visible and instantly verifiable helps reduce hiring delays, increase labor mobility, and connect residents to jobs more quickly. At scale, this strengthens workforce participation and helps ensure public investments translate into measurable outcomes.
How are states using digital wallets today? States are already implementing these systems in different ways — from talent marketplaces that match residents to jobs, to statewide credential registries and digital apps that allow credentials to be used across state lines.
What is Pearson's role in digital skills wallets for states? Pearson works with states, education systems, and workforce partners to help support the infrastructure behind verified credentials – enabling secure, interoperable records that can move across agencies and systems and make workforce skills more visible and usable at scale.