The Future is About Measuring Skills. And It's Already Here.

For decades, the American dream promised that if you graduated high school, enrolled in college, and earned a degree, opportunity would follow. But what if that model — the one so many of us believed in — does not necessarily hold true for most learners?

At Educational Results Partnership, we’ve spent over ten years analyzing the paths students take from high school to college and work. And here’s what we found: most students don’t follow a straight path, and most employers no longer care if they did. Today, students are gaining the exact skills employers need — in high school, in college, or through other forms of learning. But no one is translating those academic achievements into the language of the workplace. And employers are left guessing who’s actually qualified.

A New Operating System for Opportunity

Skills Currency is our solution. It's a simple, no-cost tool for school districts that reads students’ academic records — things like their grades, coursework, and assessments — and translates them into a set of job-ready skills. Students get a clear picture of what they’re good at, what jobs match their skills, and how much those jobs pay. Employers get a better way to find the talent they need — whether that talent comes from high school, college, or adult school. We call this 'skills currency' — a way to make learning visible, portable, and valuable in the job market.

Why This Matters Now

More than 80% of employers are hiring based on skills. California recently removed college degree requirements from nearly 30,000 state jobs. But students are being left behind because the system wasn’t built to show them their skills and what they can do in the workforce. We have learned a lot just by meeting with focus groups of high school students.

For example, one high school student told us: “I don’t think I’m developing job skills in my high school classes...most of the coursework is just seeing how much a student can remember before the test.”

Another shared: “I personally don’t feel like I know what jobs I would be good at…”

At ERP, we believe the skills are there. We just need to make the match.

What We Did at the ERP Institute

At this year’s ERP Institute, we brought together leaders from education, labor, and industry to refine the Skills Currency model. We asked key questions to make sure our tool actually works — for students, educators, and employers:

• How do we account for different grading practices?

• How can we translate test scores into job skills?

• What are the practical challenges of rolling this out in schools and workplaces

The insights we gathered will help us build a platform that makes sense to students and is trusted by employers. We are grateful for the College Futures Foundation and Campaign for Business and Education Excellence sponsoring the Institute and for the feedback we received from experts representing leading organizations doing groundbreaking work in skills measurement including the Burning Glass Institute, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Course-Skill Atlas, Education Design Lab, Educational Testing Service, MetaMetrics, SkillUp, and others. 

What Sets This Effort Apart

Here’s what makes ERP’s Skills Currency platform different:

• We know students already have valuable skills — and we prove it.

• We make academic performance useful in the job market.

• We don’t ask schools to change what they teach. We translate it.

• We help employers find talent they would otherwise miss.

• We show students the skills they have and what jobs need those skills.

• We build partnerships across sectors to ensure the system works for everyone.

Where We Go From Here

Skills Currency isn’t just an idea — it’s a real solution, already being piloted with employer organizations like the San Gabriel Valley Chamber of Commerce. Our goal is to scale this model so that every student knows what skills they bring to the table — and every employer knows where to find them. When we make the match, everyone wins. Let’s stop making students figure it out alone. Let’s stop making employers guess. Let’s start translating skills into opportunity and build a future where talent doesn’t continue to go undiscovered.