Many individuals experience learning transitions as they move from one stage of learning to another, such as moving through education and professional experiences. Navigating these transitions involves understanding and adapting to new challenges, acquiring new knowledge and skills, and progressing in one’s learning journey. Additionally, being open to change, maintaining a positive attitude, and having a growth mindset, can significantly contribute to adapting successfully to new learning environments and challenges.
Digital Promise conducted several interviews with learners and workers who were actively experiencing learning transitions to explore how learning and employment records (LERs) could be used to support them along their journeys. In listening to their stories about navigating through transitional journeys, one participant’s story stood out, demonstrating not only the challenges he faced, but also how LERs could benefit him along the way. We spoke to Andy Bill, a 30 year old self-employed participant who was forced to navigate through a challenging transition after losing his job due to Covid during the pandemic. To hear more about Andy’s experience, watch this brief video depicting his story, The Power of Learning and Employment Records (LERs): Andy’s Path to Success.
Transitions can be both exciting and challenging, as they often involve leaving familiar environments and routines to embrace new ones. To successfully navigate learning transitions, individuals often rely on support from educators, mentors, peers, and even family and friends. These transitions can occur at various levels, including Andy’s journey after losing his job due to COVID and having to make career changes by utilizing his learning experiences.
Throughout these transitions, we collect a variety of skills, competencies, and achievements. Maintaining a single space to house all of our information, particularly a space that provides flexibility to customize the information you might share with various employers, has historically been a major challenge.LERs consist of information related to an individual’s educational achievements, employment history, and other relevant data, such as training programs attended or certifications earned, which can ease the transition and ensure a smoother learning journey.
Read the full report, Learning Transition Design Principles for Learning and Employment Records: Co-designing for Equity, where we collaborated with historically and systematically excluded to create design principles that aim to guide developers, so they may build a more inclusive learning and employment record system.
Want to learn more about the design of equitable LERs? Check out our blog post, It’s in the Design: Learning and Employment Records for Greater Equity.
