The Case for Validated Skills: What Employers Want and Need

Haley Glover

Senior Director

Over the last few years, UpSkill America’s research has focused on understanding how employers of all sizes, especially small and mid-sized businesses, understand and consider the value of innovations in verified credentialing and skills validation.

We’ve looked at employer perceptions of Learning and Employment Records (LER) and found, not too surprisingly, that the term LER lands flat with employers. We’ve also learned, over and over again, that what employers are interested in is skills. Moreso, they’re interested in having the ability to understand easily what skills people have, evidence of skills demonstration, and insight into an individual’s proficiency.

We also heard from employers that they’re dealing with new challenges alongside longstanding issues. AI is creating new upskilling needs for incumbent employees, and different demands for new hires. AI is also continuing to muddy the waters for human resources leaders, contributing to increasing resume fraud (already a substantial problem) and huge increases in the number of applications with resumes that are essentially the same.

Employers see the ways in which validated skills can help to combat these challenges, new and old. But, as always, the details matter.

In summer 2025, we conducted a national survey of more than 550 employers, primarily working in human resources roles. Though the survey is not representative, we received responses from employers in every industry, state, sector, and firm size. We asked them questions to:

1. Define with greater specificity the skills information and data that employers need;
2. Identify practical, tactical, and strategic uses of skills data for employers;
3. Determine what employers accept as valid evidence of skills;
4. Provide insights for solutions developers and downstream systems using skills data and supporting skills wallets.

This piece shares findings from our survey, as well as insights for developers and systems advocates identifying design implications and priorities for recording and validating skills data.