Everywhere you turn, people talk about skills-based hiring. And rightfully so. It represents one of the most promising shifts in workforce and HR strategies in decades. Research indicates that adopting skills-based hiring could expand an employer’s potential talent pool by 19 times. Or, think about it the other way around: not hiring people based on their skills sidelines jobseekers and leaves billions of dollars of untapped talent on the table for employers.
The skills-first movement – grounded in recognizing a person’s talent and potential by valuing their comprehensive skills and competencies regardless of how or where they were acquired – has generated significant attention and inspired steps toward real change. Employers are increasingly writing skills-oriented job descriptions, numerous public sector agencies have eliminated unnecessary degree requirements, and educational institutions are collaborating with industry leaders to develop curricula focused on preparing workers with relevant skills..
Yet, a critical challenge remains largely overlooked: we don’t have the underlying infrastructure to support this shift. Credential and skills data are scattered across isolated systems, trapped in PDFs, locked in spreadsheets, hidden deep within websites, hand-written on legal pads, or formatted in ways that are onerously difficult for both humans and AI tools to read.
Skills-based hiring aims for a faster, smarter, and more inclusive talent system – but without a shared foundation that allows data to flow seamlessly between educational institutions, learners, and employers, even the best ideas won’t scale beyond pilot projects.
The good news? A solution already exists that is free for anyone to use. The Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL) is a structured, open, linked, and interoperable data (SOLID) format specifically designed to describe credentials, skills, jobs, and career pathways in human-readable and machine-actionable ways.
With 77% of HR professionals struggling to fill full-time roles and 73% of U.S. employers already implementing skills-based hiring in some capacity, the urgency to adopt improved skills and credential data systems has never been greater.
While SOLID data might not be the flashiest element of the skills-first puzzle, it’s arguably the most critical. Acting as connective tissue between the skills offered in education and training, the skills a person possesses, the skills required by employers, and precise AI-driven hiring tools, this structured data enables employers to achieve their primary goals: faster hiring, lower costs, and improved accuracy.
We can build this future, but each of us has a part to play.
Employers need to make public their job postings and internal skills frameworks with open, linked data standards. They must select HR technology solutions explicitly designed to leverage these interoperable data formats, ensuring seamless data flow across their hiring platforms and reducing time and errors associated with manual data reconciliation. Employers adopting these frameworks have reported streamlined recruitment processes and reduced bias, as well as improved employee retention.
Education and training providers need to proactively publish detailed information about their credentials and associated skills in open-source, structured data formats like CTDL. This transparency empowers learners and employers alike, enabling informed decision-making and clearer alignment between training programs and industry requirements. Furthermore, institutions must require their data management partners and vendors to use compatible formats, ensuring continuous interoperability across educational ecosystems. Institutions such as those in North Carolina, Arkansas, and Alabama have successfully built data registries, boosting learner mobility and employer partnerships.
HR tech developers must adopt and champion open, structured data standards across their products. This step is essential for interoperability among various HR tools, enabling seamless integration and consistent interpretation of skills data. Companies using SOLID data can experience the benefits of greater client satisfaction, rapid implementation, and scalable, accurate skill-matching solutions.
Skills-first strategies are undoubtedly the right move. Imagine a future where job descriptions, credential evaluations, and candidate skills all speak the same language. Our HR systems wouldn’t just list qualifications – they’d actively connect and contextualize them. This future is attainable, but only if we first build a robust foundational infrastructure.
Scott Cheney is the chief executive officer of Credential Engine, a non-profit on a mission to map the credentials and skills landscape with clear information.
