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The Skills Revolution Needs Better Data Tools
February 26, 2025
At a Glance
Skills-first hiring needs to earn the market’s trust. Better tools and strong data can help jobseekers map their way to opportunities and enable employers to better understand their needs.
In 1989, the first portable GPS receiver was introduced as a retail product. Called the NAV 1000, its battery life could survive for no more than a few hours and it cost about $3,000, which made it a consumer product that not many consumers could actually purchase. Millions of us are now part of the Cinderella story that integrated GPS technology into the affordable, indispensable tool that we know and rely on as drivers, cyclists, walkers, and generally people on the constant go.
In the skills ecosystem, data tools are to career growth what early GPS devices were to navigation: innovative but not yet optimized for everyday users. When designed with care, these tools can help jobseekers map their way to opportunities and enable employers to better understand the real-world capabilities they need their staff and job candidates to possess. Skills are quickly becoming the new currency of opportunity in today’s work landscape, but realizing their full potential requires more than technological refinement. It demands a reimagining of how these tools engage and serve the people they’re supposed to benefit.
Imagine a future where proven abilities, not just what’s written on a résumé, define career opportunities for jobseekers. People in the market for a new position will be able to track their growth, showcase progress, and transform that self-discovery into upward mobility. Employers, on the other hand, can discover talent using data tools in seamless, intuitive ways. This is what the skills economy could look like. But like GPS in its early days, this ecosystem requires a human-centered redesign that can meet the needs of two distinct but important end users. Here’s how it can happen in real time:
Build Tools That Capture Real-World Learning
Learning happens everywhere—on the job, through online platforms, in community settings, and by solving everyday challenges. Yet many tools fall short of communicating users’ diversity of skills to potential employers or educational institutions. In a skills-first economy, developers have an opportunity to create systems that present a richer, more complete picture of an individual’s unique abilities and strengths.
Key recommendations:
- Streamline data collection across learning sources: Create connections that pull data from diverse platforms—online courses, workplace training, and informal learning—into an easy-to-use system to keep everything in one place and simplify how users document their learning journeys.
- Make organizing skills easier: Use AI platforms to help users log, tag, and catalog their skills in clear, simple formats, even for individuals new to skills-based tools.
- Add ways to validate achievements: Include space for endorsements, certificates, and project samples to leverage standards like W3C Verifiable Credentials and enable users to show what they’ve accomplished in a credible way.
- Design tools that work for everyone: Focus on creating mobile-friendly, multilingual, and accessible tools that are inclusive, easy to use, and meet the needs of a wide range of individuals.
- Help users see their growth clearly: Provide dashboards that visualize progress, identify skill gaps, and align learning with career goals, including predictive insights to guide users’ next steps.
In the skills ecosystem, data tools are to career growth what early GPS devices were to navigation: innovative but not yet optimized for everyday users.
Transform Skills Data Into Pathways for Opportunity
Skills data is only as valuable as the opportunities it unlocks. For many jobseekers, the leap from documenting their skills to landing a meaningful career feels uncertain and overwhelming. That’s where user-focused design comes in to show job seekers how their unique combination of skills connects to real opportunities and guides them step-by-step toward their goals.
By creating tools that translate raw data into personalized insights and clear, actionable career pathways, developers can break down barriers to career advancement and build systems that serve everyone from early-career workers to seasoned professionals ready for a new challenge.
Key recommendations:
- Incorporate real-time information: Use live labor market data to highlight reskilling opportunities, emerging industries, and career shifts that align with market demand and the rapidly evolving work landscape.
- Focus on visual career mapping: Create intuitive, interactive tools that visually connect users’ skills to career pathways, making the data relatable and actionable. Consider integrating advanced engagement tools like augmented reality and next-generation learning modalities to deepen user interaction.
- Highlight immediate actionable steps: Provide concrete suggestions for next steps, such as certifications, training programs, or networking opportunities, to help users take measurable steps toward their goals.
- Bridge the social and knowledge capital gap: Develop tools that connect users to virtual mentorship, peer networks, and curated resources, empowering those who lack access to traditional support systems. Go beyond AI-driven coaching by incorporating human-centric guidance that helps individuals navigate career decisions, build confidence, and access the often-hidden knowledge essential for advancement.
Ensure Data Portability Across Platforms and Contexts
In a skills-first world, data must move as seamlessly as people do. Workers are more mobile than ever, transitioning between jobs, industries, and regions with increasing frequency. Yet fragmented systems often trap skills data in silos, forcing individuals to start from scratch each time they move. This isn’t just inefficient—it’s a barrier to opportunity, disproportionately affecting those who already face systemic challenges.
Data portability is the linchpin of a truly interoperable system. Tools must allow individuals to securely transfer their skills data wherever their journey takes them, ensuring that opportunities are never limited by geography, bureaucracy, or technological constraints. When data can move freely, workers gain the agency to define and pursue their own pathways to success.
Key recommendations:
- Make systems work together: Use open standards like the W3C Verifiable Credentials to seamlessly transfer data across platforms, systems, and regions. This makes tools compatible, scalable, and less frustrating for users and developers.
- Create easy ways to share skills: Design simple, secure features that allow users to share their skills records with employers, educational institutions, and licensing bodies. These features should emphasize simplicity and security, much like digital wallets make sharing payment information quick and safe.
- Put users in charge of their data: Give people control over what they share, with whom, and why. Transparent practices build trust and robust privacy protections ensure compliance with evolving regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
- Enable lifecycle data updates: Design systems that allow users to revamp and maintain their records throughout their careers. A dynamic, living account of their abilities and achievements protects the future value and portability of their data.
This isn’t just about technology—it’s about building a foundation for broad access to opportunity in a rapidly evolving world of work.
Create Accessible and Actionable Skills Tools
Even the most advanced technology can fail if it’s too complex, inaccessible, or disconnected from users’ needs. When designed effectively, skills data tools can help individuals see opportunities they might have missed and enable institutions to strategically respond to evolving workforce needs. By combining user-centered design with robust analytics, developers can create systems that are not just adopted but trusted.
Key recommendations:
- Apply design thinking to meet user needs: Create interfaces that deliver personalized insights and guidance in a clear, approachable way.
- Integrate across devices and platforms: Make tools compatible with mobile, desktop, and cross-platform environments, enabling users to seamlessly access their data wherever and whenever they need it.
- Incorporate multilingual and inclusive features: Build tools that support non-native speakers and users with diverse needs to provide accessibility. Consider features like text-to-speech, simplified interfaces, and localization for regional contexts.
- Embrace feedback for continuous improvement: Implement user feedback loops to refine functionality and guide tools’ continual evolution to meet real-world needs, stay relevant, and operate smoothly over time.
Creating the skills economy is not an undertaking for developers to execute in a silo. Collaboration is the lifeblood of the work. Vendors, educators, policymakers, and employers must work together to shape the next generation of skills data tools to guarantee they’re as dynamic and transformative as the workers themselves. By focusing on capturing real-world learning, transforming skills data into actionable pathways, ensuring portability, and prioritizing accessible design, we can create systems that empower individuals, align with workforce needs, and drive systemic change. This isn’t just about technology—it’s about building a foundation for broad access to opportunity in a rapidly evolving world of work.
This initiative is a part of the Project to Catalyze Skills-First Practices. JFF supports transformational efforts to champion skills-first practices, reshaping how workers, employers, and educational institutions communicate and assess skills, experience, and knowledge. The Project to Catalyze Skills-First Practices, funded by Walmart, seeks to redefine and enhance the way an array of actors—including employers, policymakers, learning and education providers, philanthropy, and workforce development leaders—interpret and utilize information about a worker’s skills and experiences.
