New Collaboration Will Support Credential Transparency Across the Midwest
April 20, 2020 (Washington, DC)–Today, Credential Engine and the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC), announced a new partnership to support and accelerate credential transparency across the twelve Midwest states in the Compact: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. This work will continue to build on and expand efforts to improve the vital credential and competency data connections that tie education, jobs, and the economy together.
”The opportunity to work with Credential Engine is exciting for MHEC,” said Susan Heegaard, MHEC President. “Since Indiana first started leading this work with them several years ago, five other MHEC states and others across the nation have engaged in the effort to make credentials in their states transparent and more accessible. Each of our states’ approach to this work is unique, something we appreciate and support at MHEC. From the work of the six states already connected with Credential Engine, we will be able to learn and recommend efficient, effective ways for other states to move toward credential transparency in the future.”
“We are thrilled to be working with Susan and the great team at MHEC,” said Scott Cheney, Executive Director of Credential Engine. “Their experience in addressing critical issues across and in partnership with these twelve states is invaluable, and will be essential to helping us all advance the important work of putting better information in the hands of students, workers, employers, educators and policymakers—especially at a time when good information about the value of credentials and competencies is so important to helping people and the economy recover.”
Building on the existing work in Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois, this collaboration will expand awareness and information about the value of credential and competency transparency across the member states, share best practices, seek scalable solutions that can be applied to multiple institutions, systems, and states, explore the use of shared master contracts for services, and understand and promote appropriate policy solutions and structures to expand transparency. In addition, through MHEC’s existing partnership with the other regional compacts across the country – the New England Board of Higher Education, the Southern Regional Education Board, and the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, this collaboration’s benefits will reach beyond the Midwest to the nation as a whole.
###
Credential Engine is a non-profit whose mission is to create credential transparency, reveal the credential marketplace, increase credential literacy, and empower everyone to make more informed decisions about credentials and their value. Credential Engine receives support from Lumina Foundation, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Walmart, Northrop Grumman Foundation, ECMC Foundation, Microsoft, the National Science Foundation, Siegel Family Endowment, and Google.org.
Credential Engine Contact: Scott Cheney (scheney@credentialengine.org)
Legislatively created, the Midwestern Higher Education Compact’s (MHEC) purpose is to provide greater higher education opportunities and services in the Midwestern region. MHEC fulfills its statutory responsibilities by working with the Compact member states to create solutions that build higher education’s capacity to better serve individuals, institutions, and states by leveraging the region’s resources, expertise, ideas, and experiences through multi-state: convening, programs, research, and contracts.
MHEC Contact: Mary Roberson (maryr@mhec.org)