New Economy Skills Unlocking the Human Advantage 2025

Credentialling human- centric skills Credentialling human-centric skills remains perhaps the most challenging area. Skill recognition must be meaningful, portable and trusted across borders, sectors and systems – qualities that are still unevenly achieved today. Set shared standards: Traditional qualifications like degrees and diplomas provide well-recognized signals of competence but often capture what people know rather than how they adapt, collaborate and lead. Yet, alternative credentials – micro- credentials, digital badges and endorsements – are emerging to certify specific human-centric skills, such as creativity, resilience, leadership or collaboration. Their modular, stackable format helps people build and showcase skills over time. Still, without shared standards and employer recognition, their value risks being inconsistent. Establishing common frameworks for validation and interoperability at national and global levels is essential to prevent fragmentation and ensure credibility. Prove it in practice: Portfolios and real-world evidence offer deeper insight into how skills are applied. However, they remain concentrated in creative or technical fields and often lack trusted verification mechanisms to be credible in hiring or admissions. New hybrid models that connect formal qualifications with modular credentials can make lifelong learning more visible and credible. Documented performance – such as projects, reflections and peer evaluations – can provide robust proof of skills in practice, but only if embedded in systems that employers and education providers trust and recognize across hiring, promotion and lifelong learning. Badge what matters: To ensure recognition is both meaningful and portable, credentials must clearly reflect context, process and learning outcomes. Digital badges, portfolios and other forms of micro- credentials should include metadata detailing how skills were acquired, assessed and endorsed. This transparency enhances trust and comparability, helping employers and educators interpret credentials accurately while avoiding credential inflation. Technology can help address these challenges. Blockchain-based systems and secure digital portfolios allow credentials to be portable, transparent and verifiable across borders. QR- coded badges and embedded metadata provide additional layers of trust by linking credentials to verified evidence of learning and assessment. Offline and hybrid solutions expand recognition to low-connectivity environments, so that credentialling is equitable and inclusive. To put these principles into practice: –Educators can integrate digital portfolios and skills tagging into coursework so that learners can document, reflect on and demonstrate human-centric skills developed through projects and experiential learning. –Employers can formally recognize digital portfolios, badges and verified skills records in hiring, promotion and professional development to reward human-centric skills. They can collaborate within and across industries to set shared standards. –Governments can develop national standards and frameworks that embed human-centric skills into formal qualifications, recognize micro- credentials and support interoperable digital credentialling systems. They can collaborate across regions to promote shared standards. Enabling conditions for a human-centric skill ecosystem These approaches will only succeed if supported by enabling conditions that guarantee equity and trust. Access must be guaranteed so that all learners, regardless of background, can benefit from opportunities for development, assessment and credentialling. Equally important is the adoption of a common skill language to align learning outcomes, hiring practices and recognition across systems. Assessments, development practices and credentials should be designed to recognize different cultural and gender perspectives while actively minimizing bias. Embedding inclusivity not only strengthens trust in skill recognition but also ensures their relevance and applicability across borders and industries. Finally, technology should serve as an enhancer rather than a substitute for human judgement, expanding access, enabling scalability and supporting reflection, while upholding transparency, privacy and equity. Taken together, these principles provide a pathway to strengthen global practices around human- centric skills. By embedding them in development, assessment and credentialling systems, and by anchoring them in enabling conditions of equity, common language, context awareness and responsible use of technology, societies can ensure that these essential skills are visible, valued and nurtured for the future of work and learning. Technology should serve as an enhancer rather than a substitute for human judgement, expanding access, enabling scalability and supporting reflection. New Economy Skills: Unlocking the Human Advantage 29