Empowering the Employer: Parchment Summit 2017

With March here, many people start thinking about spring, St. Patrick’s Day and March Madness. But for those of us in the credentialing world, we worked hard to make sure March means one thing: The Parchment Summit on Innovating Academic Credentials.

This year’s event, held Wednesday, March 1st in Washington DC, focused on bridging the gap between employers and credentialing institutions. We were joined by journalists, leaders in higher education and employers like JetBlue Airways with the common thread amongst the group being a shared interest in ensuring we have a qualified, engaged workforce. In year two of the Parchment Summit, we concentrated on bringing forth conversations related to which employers collect academic credentials and why, seeking to further open up the lines of communication between higher education and the workforce.

“Right now we’re in an awkward spot where there appears to be a mismatch between what employers say they want and what they believe colleges and universities are producing,” said Ted Mitchell, former Under Secretary of Education for the Obama Administration, in a recent EdSurge story

In partnership with Connecting Credentials, the 2017 Parchment Summit featured keynote speakers, fireside chats and breakout sessions.

“As our students pursue a broader and more diverse range of career paths than anytime in the past, the growth of new, more flexible credentials will be critical to their ability to shape and tell their unique stories,” said Pulin Sanghvi, Executive Director, Office of Career Services, Princeton University. “I found the Parchment Summit to be thought-provoking in bringing together leading-edge thinkers on how this important space is evolving, and what the future will look like. In the course of our day together, we covered a broad range of topics related to credential innovation, new models of recruiting, and the enduring value of the liberal arts. I found myself on a steep learning curve the entire day, and already have a large number of ideas to bring back to Princeton.”

Videos from the 2017 Parchment Summit will be available on ParchmentSummit.com in April. In the meantime, follow us on social media via @parchment and @parchmentsummit and search for the 2017 Summit conversations using #parchmentsummit. Parchment and many attendees live tweeted sessions this year so you can quickly catch up on the conversations as we work to make the videos available.

Learn more about this year’s program here.

There’s always more to learn.