New Partnership of International Organizations Signals Push for Open Standards to Advance Competency-Based Learning
New partnership between 1EdTech Consortium, C-BEN, and Unicon was announced today
Gilbert, AZ – November 12, 2024 – As interest in skills- and competency-based hiring rises worldwide, 1EdTech® Consortium (1EdTech), Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN), and Unicon announced today an official partnership to advance the unique needs of competency-based learning through the use of interoperable and open technical standards.
The 1EdTech community’s objective is to foster an open, trusted and interoperable edtech community and ecosystem, including the standardized exchange of data between systems that manage education administration, teaching and learning, skills and competency frameworks, and digital credentials.
C-BEN is committed to growing competency-based education to make education more flexible, responsive and valuable for learners and employers. They guide their network of leaders toward competency-based models for education, hiring and training to support career-readiness and lifelong learning.
Unicon is leading the competency community to design competency-driven technical architectures that power quality CBE programs. We act as advocates for the proliferation of competency- and skills-forward product features, open standards to facilitate skills data movement, and investment in competency and skills-focused EdTech companies.
“We believe interoperability of competency and skills data in a tech ecosystem is key to making competency-based education and skills-based hiring work, allowing learners to accumulate multiple verified records of their skills, from various sources, over time, so the learner can better showcase their talents and employers can use skills evidence for hiring,” said Amber Garrison Duncan from C-BEN. “1EdTech’s technical expertise, standards and collaborations help learners own and share their achievements throughout their lives.”
“1EdTech’s technical standards deal with the practical aspects of creating an interoperable tech ecosystem,” explained Curtiss Barnes, 1EdTech CEO. “Despite the great work that’s been done over the last several years, there are still technical barriers keeping competency-based education programs from realizing their full potential when it comes to supporting student success. Now, with this partnership, we’re signaling a stronger united front to help get platforms where those programs need them to be.”
“Unicon has been a leader in applying the right teams, strategies, and technology to help our clients stay aligned with the evolving world of digital learning,” says Kate Valenti, Unicon CEO. “Increasingly, we are seeing technical barriers to competency and skills-based implementation. Working with C-BEN and the community, we’ve been able to identify these barriers and empower institutions and organizations to work around them. Our goal is to be a bridge between education and technology to move systems forward.”
The partnership will also increase the visibility of C-BEN’s emerging rubric for digital learning platforms, which informs potential clients how effective a platform is at supporting competency-based programs.
The rubric results will be available in 1EdTech’s TrustEd Apps™ Directory in early 2025.
About 1EdTech
1EdTech Consortium is the leading global non-profit developing an open, trusted and innovative edtech ecosystem that ensures seamless interoperability in digital learning and credentialing. Our members represent a diverse community of education and training providers, technology suppliers, and government agencies committed to creating and evolving community-developed technical standards and practices that span the lifelong learning continuum to support learner success. Our organization gives a voice to all stakeholders working to improve educational opportunities and experiences for all ages. 1EdTech hosts the Learning Impact Conference, Digital Credentials Summit, and other engagement opportunities to advance the leadership and ideas that shape the future of learning. Visit our website at 1edtech.org.
About C-BEN
The Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN) is revolutionizing how we design, experience, and measure learning throughout a lifetime. We believe learning should be measured by what you can do — the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that lay the foundation for your success — and for more than 10 years we have been guiding our expansive network of education leaders, employers, policymakers, and changemakers to implement successful competency-based programs and evaluate candidates based on their skill sets.
About Unicon
Unicon is the leading digital enablement partner in the educational technology, learning, and skills-forward market. As the partner of choice, Unicon guides innovation efforts in the areas of advisory, engineering, implementation, and support. Unicon believes in the power of technology to expand access to education and in the power of education to create a better future for all.
Unicon is a Contributing Member of 1EdTech, a Commercial Affiliate of the Apereo Foundation, a Trust and Identity Solution Provider in the Internet2® Industry Program, an Industry Member of Internet2®, an InCommon Participant, an InCommon Catalyst, an Instructure Certified Partner, and a community member of the Ed-Fi Alliance. Unicon is also an AWS Partner Network (APN) Advanced Consulting Partner, and has achieved the AWS Education Competency. Follow Unicon on LinkedIn, X, and Facebook.
