Creating a common language to unify the worlds of work and learning through a shared understanding of skills.

Anyone who ever attended a mixed gathering of private business, education or workforce professionals likely noticed one thing: each constituency has its own language. Admittedly, the proprietary language of each stakeholder group works well for that constituency; thus the lack of consistency is not the fault of any single group. But the ability to communicate among constituencies seamlessly is seriously hampered by the lack of a shared language. Nowhere is this language barrier more pronounced than in the discussion of “skills” – a term ubiquitous for all groups but without uniform definition.

To solve this highly pervasive problem, the Center for Employability Outcomes developed the Shared Skills Language Platform in an effort to normalize the discussion of skills and eliminate confusion.  The Shared Skills Language Platform is based upon a skills library, curated by C4EO and its partners, that provides institutions and industry with the foundation to gain a deeper understanding of competencies across multiple dimensions.
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While the idea of a shared skills language is not new, C4EO’s Shared Skills Language Platform, and the applications that can be built upon it, marks a new and more strategic evolution over the government directed policies of the past.  The new direction is a combination of both public and private mandates to have major positive impacts on business talent acquisition.  This can only be done by an agenda agnostic, partnership-based organization focused on real-world input from public and private institutions and a strong dedication to continually curate the skills library at the heart of the platform.

Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash