Validate Prior Learning to Accelerate Employment Act
The Validate Prior Learning to Accelerate Employment Act would amend the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to place a formal emphasis on competency-based assessments that measure what adults and dislocated workers already know and can do. The core idea is to identify or create assessments that validate prior knowledge, skills, and experiences, so individuals can earn recognized credentials or credits toward credentials, and have those skills counted toward employment plans. These assessments would also help job seekers present their capabilities to employers through resumes, profiles, or portfolios. The bill also directs states to share information about these assessments with local areas and employers, supports using skills-based hiring (as an alternative to degree requirements), and expands when and how competency-based assessments can be used at both the state and local levels to accelerate employment.
Key Points
- 1Create and identify competency-based assessments through collaboration among industry groups, employers (including small/mid-sized), training providers, local boards, and higher education to measure adults’ and dislocated workers’ knowledge, skills, and abilities. Outcomes can include:
- 2- Recognized postsecondary credentials used by employers, or credits toward credentials aligned with in‑demand sectors/occupations.
- 3- Information to inform individualized employment plans that identify in‑demand sectors, required upskilling, and how to secure employment.
- 4- Help for individuals to communicate their skills to employers via resumes, profiles, or portfolios.
- 5Require states to disseminate information about these assessments to local areas and employers, including:
- 6- Credentials or credits awarded.
- 7- Which organizations recognize the validated skills.
- 8- How to access the assessments through the one-stop delivery system.
- 9- How employment plans can incorporate the information from the assessments.
- 10Support employers in adopting skills-based hiring practices as an alternative to degree-based hiring, including:
- 11- Technical assistance on using and validating competency-based assessments.
- 12- Help in creating skills-based job descriptions.
- 13Local flexibility: allow local workforce systems to determine, at the point of initial assessment or after training, whether an individual would benefit from a competency-based assessment identified/developed by the state, to speed up employment and advancement. Include competency-based assessments in individual employment plans and initial skill assessments.
- 14Expand permissible local activities to include providing technical assistance to employers for skills-based hiring and to use competency-based assessments, plus require competency-based assessments to be available at key decision points (initial assessment or after training).