One goal of the learning labels system is to create more effective, efficient learning pathways to jobs; this is accomplished by thinking in skills and reaching set competencies, as opposed to a rigid time-based credit hour and semesters framework found in both education and higher education. In addition, companies (job posters) and education and training providers should use the platform to collaborate in establishing necessary requirements.
The learning labels system includes a hierarchical structure of elements: jobs, courses (syllabus), projects and lesson plans, and tasks (learning labels). One function is to assign elements to their parents (upper levels). So, courses get assigned to jobs, projects get assigned to courses, and tasks get assigned to all the other elements depending on what is required. Someone posting a job uses any of the elements to construct the ‘learning pathway’.
Each element gets a unique URL and page to represent the learning and requirements. The learning labels appear as a manageable dashboard on project, syllabus, and jobs. When someone clicks on an element, the learning labels assigned to the element appear colored to mark them.
A company (job poster) might create their own pathway to a job by creating tasks, projects, and courses. This signals to job seekers to complete each of the requirements and when they do, they should get hired for the job. Or, this might be part of an onboarding process: make new hires go through each of the tasks and make a longer-term commitment when they do.
Ideally, a company collaborates with an education or training organization. The company creates a job description (with a job label, showing skills requirements). Then a learning practitioner constructs a ‘learning pathway’ to address each of the requirements on a job label (or a few of them), might work in conjunction with the company. A few examples:
- A team of professors or learning practitioners at a company create a series of MOOCs with a certificate specifically for a job area, using a collection of job labels.
- A school at a university / college creates a program for a job area.
- A vocational / training institution maps their learning to competency-based learning.
- A learning institution providing a bootcamp, new-age apprenticeship, or micro-credential constructs pathways for their accelerated programs.
And with a healthy number of learning labels, courses, projects, and jobs in the system, learning pathways get constructed as shared resources among a community. An online search within the learning labels system includes a search engine result page (“SERP) with each of the elements. Any party finds the elements and puts them together to construct a learning pathway. Finally, with enough learning pathways, students prepare themselves.
The value in creating ‘learning pathways’ within the learning labels system is there is complete transparency on a granular level. Essentially, a pathway is built on a ‘task’ level where all the expectations are clearly represented along with education and training standards to anchor them. Competencies are established by calibrating Skill Points® on an aggregate level. The Skill Points® on a ‘job label’ should match the sum of Skill Points® in the learning labels for a pathway.
Map skills to jobs. Map skills to learning. Combine to make better pathways.