03/03/2026
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/road-credential-adoption-paved-employer-trust-protect-angela-consani-lkxac/
"I have written before about resisting the allure of the easy solution. Online multiple-choice assessment is the easy solution. It scales, it is cheap to administer, it is easy to report, and it creates the appearance of standardization. It also has a financial allure. When a credentialing body can increase margin by shifting from performance-based assessment to knowledge-only testing, the incentives are obvious.
But, employer trust is not built on convenience. It is built on rigor, transparency, and consistency. It is built when the credential signal reliably predicts hiring readiness. Once that connection weakens, the signal degrades. A credential becomes a checkbox. Employers stop treating it as meaningful because trust is lost. And when employers stop believing, students and schools pay the price."
Across the country, CTE leaders are being asked to provide evidence of skills acquisition. Perkins V and state accountability frameworks have pushed programs toward Industry-Recognized Credentials (IRCs) because, in theory, an IRC is supposed to serve as a credible signal.
