Webinar Recording
- 02:48 – XCredit and the Skills Ecosystem
- 08:21 – The Technology Layer: Edalex and SkillsAware
- 15:25 – Learner Voice: Monique E. and Tamara S.’s Experience
- 35:31 – Employer Perspetive: JobLink Plus
- 49:30 – Q&A: Assessment Methodology
- 56:19 – EDL’s Upcoming Report
The need for skills visibility isn’t tied to one geographic location. Across the world, skills gaps are widening, and as the pace of change continues to increase, so too the need for skilled workers.
However, traditional systems can sometimes hide skills instead of recognising them. Resumes only show about 20% of a person’s talent, leaving the other 80% – the hard-won life-wide skills gained through experience – invisible to employers.
This session explored the critical balance between skills infrastructure and the human element, including:
- Infrastructure for recognition – a look at how XCredit and SkillsAware translate lived experience into verified data
- The power of visibility – how seeing their own skills changes a learner’s understanding of their own skills and that of their worklife
- Durable skills – why soft skills, like leadership and adaptability, are the most critical yet least evidenced capabilities in the modern market
- The human element – ensuring technology accelerates recognition without sacrificing the human experience
Attendees were invited to share questions they would like the learners to answer.
Special Preview:
This webinar also featured a discussion around Education Design Lab’s upcoming ‘Validating Skills at Scale: A Human + Tech Ecosystem View’ report (set for release in late May 2026), reinforcing the urgent need for balance between technology-centered and human-centered design.
Speakers:
- Tara Laughlin, Ed.D. (Education Design Lab) – a leading voice in durable skills and the architect of learner-centered credentialing models.
- Nishita Chheda (Education Design Lab) – expert in skills-based research and learner advocacy.
- Margo Griffith (Edalex / SkillsAware) – Principal Skills Consultant focused on solving the wicked problem of skills recognition through auditable evidence.
- The Learners – hear directly from three professionals about the “Aha!” moment of seeing their unseen skills finally verified and portable.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Tara Laughlin, Ed.D.
Senior Director, Skills Visibility, Education Design Lab
Dr. Tara Laughlin is a leader in competency-based education, skills validation, and digital credentialing. As Director of Skills Development & Validation for Education Design Lab, she leads the Center for Skills Validation and drives strategy for scalable, human-centered approaches to make durable skills visible and valued. Tara brings over 15 years of cross-sector experience spanning K-12, higher education, workforce development, and edtech. Her strengths lie in taking a human-centered approach to micro-credentialing, learning experience design, and the use of authentic assessment and performance data to promote learner agency and economic mobility. She holds a Doctorate in Curriculum and Innovation and regularly contributes to national conversations through publications, conference presentations, and cross-sector partnerships advancing the future of learning, work, and equitable opportunity.
Nishita Chheda
Education Designer, Education Design Lab
Nishita is a researcher and design practitioner committed to fostering equitable systems through community-centered solutions. As an Education Designer at the Education Design Lab, she designs evaluation frameworks and learning agendas for multi-stakeholder initiatives aimed at improving credential quality, transparency, and skills visibility for workers skilled through alternative routes.
Drawing on service design and mixed-methods research, Nishita synthesizes cross-project evidence into actionable insights that inform both program strategy and field-facing knowledge products.
She champions inclusive, stakeholder-led approaches to education design, ensuring that the voices and experiences of the communities these systems serve remain central to decision-making.
Margo Griffith
Principal Skills Consultant, Edalex
Margo’s in-depth knowledge and experience of skills, the skills ecosystem and digital credentials is the result of working in and with higher education providers and edtech leaders, nationally and internationally for 30+ years. She is passionate about the positive impact of technology within education and the enablement of lifelong learning, learner agency and mobility.
Margo is a convenor of the Australian micro-credentials Network and consults with the Government, industry, and education sectors on a skills-first approach to learning and the workforce.
Her recent publications include “Creating the University of the Future: A Global View on Future Skills and Future Higher Education” (Contributor) (Springer 2024), “Technology Enablement of the Skills Ecosystem” Naomi Rose Boyer and Margo Leanne Griffith (International Journal of Information and Learning Technology ISSN: 2056-4880, 2023) and “Mapping the STEM Microcredential Landscape, Volume II” (Contributor) (Springer 2026) Naomi Rose Boyer and Margo Leanne Griffith.
