Digital Credentials for Veterans

Anheuser-Busch will use a new digital credentialing system, an early win for a project to help employers connect with skilled veterans. Also, insights on the impact of creative financing for training and living expenses, business-led groups call on Congress to fund workforce programs, and an essay on accreditors and nondegree credentials.

Translating Military Skills for Manufacturing

The Trump administration is predicting a renaissance for U.S. manufacturing, with millions of new jobs for workers without college degrees. The Biden administration had similar goals. Whether or not a manufacturing boom happens, the industry already is struggling to fill 450K open jobs.

Some of the roughly 200K members of the U.S. military who transition to civilian life every year could find good fits in manufacturing roles. A new partnership seeks to connect employers in the industry with veterans and transitioning service members—offering them digital credentials that recognize relevant skills they earned in the military.

The collaboration features Solutions for Information Design, Inc. (SOLID), the Manufacturing Institute, and iDatafy. It builds on the institute’s Manufacturing Readiness Project, which aims to make military experience comprehensible to civilian employers.

“We haven’t historically done a good job of showing them that their skills are transferable,” says Lauren Runco Bevilacqua, VP of innovation, strategy, and delivery at SOLID, which does military credentialing and skills translation.

The Details: Through the new integration, users can transfer digital badges they earn on SOLID’s platform directly into iDatafy’s SmartResume, which describes itself as a three-sided certified talent marketplace. The slate of digital badges represent technical skills and a suite of leadership credentials.

The digital credentials are backed by the Manufacturing Institute and offer a connection to companies through the SmartResume platform. 

Participating veterans can upload their joint services transcript to have their skills translated into civilian language. By tying its brand to the process, the Manufacturing Institute is promoting the credibility of the credentials and the skills they validate, says Ian Davidson, SmartResume’s chief growth officer. 

“That’s a game changer because it makes it so much easier for a manufacturer to place their trust in the process and believe that the credentials have value,” he says.

That approach eliminates guesswork for employers, through standardization and clear skills translation, says Sytease Geib, a special projects manager for the Manufacturing Institute. “We have to have signals to validate skills and competencies in a way that’s trusted.”

Anheuser-Busch Signs On: The concept behind this collaboration is hardly new. I wrote about a digital badging project for veterans back in 2012. But the underlying technology has come a long way, as has urgency about the labor shortage in manufacturing.

Digital badges aren’t the innovative part of this new project, its leaders say. Credentials are just the vehicle. The real promise is about the quality of the information they capture and the connections to employers they help veterans forge.

“It shows them that they could step into those roles,” says Runco Bevilacqua. “And that there’s demand for those roles.”

Anheuser-Busch announced this week that it will be the first manufacturer to use the digital credentialing system.

That commitment is part of a $300M investment in the brewing giant’s U.S. manufacturing footprint. It will open a technical training center in Columbus, Ohio—joining a center for more advanced training in the company’s hometown of St. Louis. Anheuser-Busch says it will upskill its entire regional technical workforce at the new center over the next three years.

“The company will train its workforce on the credentialing system,” it said, “ensuring that recruiters understand how the unique skillsets of service members translate to these manufacturing roles at Anheuser-Busch and enabling them to apply that knowledge to thousands of applications annually.”

More than 10% of Anheuser-Busch’s 19K workers in the U.S. are veterans and active-duty military personnel, with 60% working in manufacturing roles.

Davidson says the digital credentials will make it much easier for Anheuser-Busch and other employers to find veterans with job-relevant skills. 

“They are brought together in a national talent marketplace where employers can not only promote their positions and see who comes to them, but they can set up alerts to be notified as new matching talent enters the marketplace,” he says. “It's completely bi-directional.”

Runco Bevilacqua says the digital badges already can be displayed on Alabama’s Talent Triad job-matching site. The project’s goal is to expand its reach to other statewide platforms, as well as to industries beyond manufacturing, and a wide range of jobseekers.

The Kicker: “This is scalable beyond the military,” she says.

Affording the Time to Learn

Social Finance has been a pioneer in developing alternative financing for education and short-term training—starting with income share agreements (ISAs) and moving into pay-it-forward funds and zero-interest loans. The nonprofit’s goal is to create student-friendly options. It partners with training providers and funders who are willing to put that to the test.

Tracy Palandjian, the group’s co-founder and CEO, argues in a recent op-ed in Work Shift that the country needs more solutions that don’t just cover tuition but also address the broader financial needs of working learners. That should include creative financing, like zero-interest loans, to help pay for students’ living expenses while they are in short-term training programs, she writes in the piece, which is coauthored by Plinio Ayala, CEO of Per Scholas. 

“The harsh truth is that even free training comes with significant financial burdens,” they write. 

With the support of the Google Career Certificates Fund, Social Finance and Per Scholas, a nonprofit that provides free tech training, have been piloting and testing the impact of a zero-percent loan program to cover up to $3K in living expenses for eligible participants. Graduates only pay the loan back if they make at least $40K a year, and repayment is capped at $84 per month over 36 months. 

• Initial results from the 10-month pilot demonstrate improved learner outcomes—with 83% of learners who took out a loan completing their program, compared to 70% of those who did not.

“As learners embark on a new career path, they must first be able to afford the time to learn,” Palandjian and Ayala write.

Tuition, Too: The research group MDRC also recently published final results in a long-running study of the impact of one of Social Finance’s earliest “career impact bond” funds, UP Fund. The $50M fund aims to improve economic mobility by offering ISAs to learners in four for-profit training programs with strong track records and tight ties to industry. With the ISAs, learners pay nothing up front in exchange for paying back a portion of their salary once they’ve graduated and are making at least $30K to $50K a year, depending on the program.

MDRC found that the UP Fund significantly increased access to the training programs, which had tuition ranging from $8,750 to $35K. The pool of students using the ISAs was far more diverse than those the programs typically serve, and 94% of the participants graduated. However, many participants were confused by the terms of the agreements, and fewer than half of graduates were up-to-date on the required reporting of their income.

• For those that reported income, average pay after graduation was about $47K—up from $29K for those who were employed before the program.

• But only 43% of graduates were current on their monthly payments.

Overall, the MDRC researchers found promise in the model but urged simpler contracts, stronger job-placement help, and more support from the ISA servicers. Leaders at Social Finance say they’ve already incorporated feedback over time and simplified the instrument—for example, by using flat payments where possible. The organization also is increasingly focused on different financing mechanisms, including zero-interest loans directly to providers or models that have employers pay back students’ loans.

“While this work began with an ISA, it has never been about a specific tool,” says Jake Edwards, VP of impact investments at Social Finance. “Over the past six years, we have found other financing products and repayment models that accomplish the same goal of enabling learner employment outcomes and economic mobility, while affording more clarity and student friendliness.” —By Elyse Ashburn

Calls for Federal Workforce Funding

Two coalitions of dozens of business leaders and economic organizations are calling on Congress to step up with funding for previously authorized workforce training investments. The nonprofit America Achieves helped to organize the two coalitions.

In one letter, representatives from more than 40 business-led regional workforce and economic development groups note that just 8% of the $10B authorized for the tech hubs program under the CHIPS and Science Act has been funded.

The tech hubs are designed to spur the development of advanced industries outside of superstar cities, by pulling together coalitions of research institutions, community organizations, colleges, and companies. They feature an unusual dual focus on economic growth and mobility. 

The groups called for at least $250M in funding for tech hubs during the 2026 fiscal year. “Continued investment in this high-impact initiative is a national imperative,” they wrote.

A second letter, signed by 30 similar organizations, pushed for $50M in 2026 for two workforce training investments under the recently enacted, bipartisan reauthorization of the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration. Those two programs are currently unfunded.

“Without appropriations, states and communities cannot access these tools to drive job creation and strengthen regional economies,” the letter said.

Open Tabs

AI and Jobs
Artificial intelligence is moving too quickly for expert consensus to emerge or laypeople to keep up, writes tech veteran Steve Newman in announcing the new Golden Gate Institute for AI. The think tank will draw from its expert convenings to publish analyses on what’s happening with AI. Its focus will include the pace of the tech’s development, economic impacts, democracy and governance, and how to encourage the adoption of beneficial uses of AI.

Community College Apprenticeships
A barrier to expanding apprenticeship into industries beyond construction is that high-growth fields such as healthcare, business services, and IT require industry-recognized credentials, notes the Association of Community College Trustees. The group says community colleges are well positioned to combine affordable credentials with apprenticeship programs. ACCT has partnered with New America to increase the sector’s capacity for apprenticeship.

Work-Integrated Learning
A project from Arizona State University seeks to close the gap between higher education and workforce readiness through innovative work-integrated learning opportunities. With support from JPMorganChase and Strada Education Foundation, the Work-Integrated Learning Accelerator aims to co-design and pilot learning models by bringing together up to five other colleges and universities and a similar number of employers and ed-tech startups.

Skills-Based Hiring
A new campaign hopes to create a cultural shift from prioritizing traditional college degrees to valuing individual talent and nonconformity. The WAY (Who Are You) campaign is backed by Stand Together, a philanthropic organization, in collaboration with No More Dreams Studios. It includes video booths for concertgoers attending the Weeknd’s U.S. tour, which will feature a video message from influencers who support the campaign.

Digital Credentials
Technical solutions alone will not adequately drive widespread adoption of learning and employment records. That requires compelling marketing and genuine user excitement, according to initial findings from SkillsFWD, a cohort of seven grantees that received $700K–$1.4M each to enhance digital credentialing. The report recommends targeted outreach on LERs, as well as strengthened government partnerships and standardized metrics.

Free College
New York now is offering free community college in high-demand occupations. A newly signed law allocates $47M to cover the remaining costs of tuition, fees, and books for students ages 25–55 who pursue certain associate degrees in fields such as nursing, pathways into teaching, technology, and engineering. The state budget also includes $20M for key academic and career advisement programs, and $15M in AI investments.

Job Moves
David Barker has been nominated to be assistant secretary for postsecondary education at the U.S. Department of Education. An economist who has served on the Iowa Board of Regents, Barker will help lead reforms to accreditation, improving federal student aid, and ensuring grant programs are invested in agency priorities, the department said.

David Deming has been named dean of Harvard College, the university’s undergraduate college. Deming, an economist, is focused on the intersection of education, labor markets, and economic equality. His recent work explores how AI is affecting jobs and the economy. Deming also co-leads Harvard’s Project on Workforce.

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