Education has transformed into a lifelong pursuit. Individuals are training and retraining as technologies and the market for skills requires in order to further their careers.
Education has transformed into a lifelong pursuit. Individuals are training and retraining as technologies and the market for skills requires in order to further their careers. The number of years an individual stays in the workforce is also increasing. Regular and continuous professional development is a key to remaining productive and to long-term employment. Options to support the demand for lifelong learning are growing rapidly.
Online learning, credentialing, and work-based training are providing opportunities for continuous professional growth. Currently, data about an individual is stored in many different systems. Each set of systems has different rules on privacy and access. Limiting the data that is stored in and across these systems can help reduce security risks for the individual and the institutions. Blockchain can help solve this. Blockchain technology is essentially a ledger of data stored across computers linked together using cryptographic technology in a way that makes it impossible to tamper with the data on a chain. Instead of storing sensitive data on the chain, it could act as an index and the credentials could reside off chain with a directory of keys or indexes that point to them.
Much of the data remain siloed behind the walls of institutions and HR departments. This causes a time and financial burden on the learner. The more learning opportunities they indulge in the harder it is to collect the credentials from each individual institution or organization. Blockchain offers a solution that is both verifiable and protects an individual journey through education and the workforce. Digitizing the entire verification process will save money and time for individuals seeking verification and for institutions trying to meet that demand.
Bobbe Baggio, Ph.D.
Advantage Learning Technology