The Education Design Lab (the Lab) is a national nonprofit that co-designs, prototypes, and tests education-to-workforce models through a human-centered design process focused on understanding learners’ experiences, addressing equity gaps in higher education, and connecting learners to economic mobility.

"Education Design Lab is actively engaged in advancing Learning and Employment Records (LERs) as part of a broader movement to create more equitable hiring and education systems. Our work focuses on:

-Collaborating with diverse stakeholders including Non-Profit organizations, employers, standards organizations, and higher education institutions to develop and promote LER implementation.

-Serving as a convener to bring together key players in the LER ecosystem, helping to push the community forward by organizing insights and capturing the latest advances in the field.

-Supporting the vision of LERs as open standards-based, machine-actionable digital records that document both formal and informal learning and employment using W3C Verifiable Credential standards.

-Promoting the use of LERs to enable skills-based approaches across various systems including HR, recruiting, career navigation, credentialing platforms, and case management.

The Lab recognizes that LERs have the potential to create more equitable hiring processes by reducing bias and helping individuals better understand their full range of achievements beyond traditional degrees. Their work supports the development of interoperable systems that can work together effectively, reducing administrative burden and opening new pathways to connect people with appropriate work, learning opportunities, and resources."