US Chamber of Commerce Foundations JEDx Initiative Advances New Tool to Support Seamless Sharing of Skills & Credentials

Release Represents Milestone Toward National Alignment of Skills and Learning Data Across Education, Workforce, and Hiring Systems

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, May 14, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, in collaboration with the Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community and the HR Open Standards Consortium, today announced a key milestone in modernizing how skills and learning data are shared across education and workforce systems.

The JEDx Test Suite leverages the latest HR Open Standards and SIF Infrastructure 3.4, ensuring robust, secure, and efficient data exchanges. By integrating JEDx objects aligned with HR Open Standards 4.3, this initiative is pioneering a seamless standard for workforce and employment data management. HR Open Standards is the second major external standards body to adopt the Global SIF Infrastructure after the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC), underscoring its proven effectiveness and versatility.

"We are delighted to introduce the JEDx Test Suite, which promises to streamline and significantly enhance employment data exchanges," said Steve Smith, Executive Director of A4L. "This initiative is a testament to the collaborative power of public-private partnerships, providing secure, scalable, and flexible solutions tailored to real-world needs."

Key features of the JEDx Test Suite include:
• Modern Data Format: Uses JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), a widely adopted data structuring format, so different systems can exchange information seamlessly. This helps platforms speak the same language when sharing data.
• Learning and Employment Record Resume Standard (LER-RS) Compatible: Supports a structured, digital way to capture and share a person’s learning, skills, and work history. This makes it easier for different systems to understand this data, so qualifications, skills, and experience translate across platforms making sure all learning counts.
• Scalable Infrastructure: Built on the Global SIF Infrastructure, a trusted technology that can handle everything from occasional data updates to constant, real-time information sharing. This flexibility supports a wide range of education and workforce systems.
• Strong Security and Privacy Protections: To keep personal data safe, the test suite uses proven security practices and privacy tools. This includes compliance with GDPR, a major data protection law in Europe that sets high standards for handling sensitive information like employment records.
• OpenAPI Compatibility: The test suite uses widely adopted A4L Community’s OpenAPI standards that make it easier for systems to connect and exchange data. This promotes both efficiency and transparency by relying on open, clearly documented methods.
Feedback from early pilot users has already led to significant enhancements to both the HR Open Standards and the SIF Infrastructure, showing the test suite’s real-world value and ability to adapt.

The JEDx initiative, launched by the U.S. Chamber Foundation, promotes the development and use of data and technology standards for jobs and employment. JEDx aims to transform workforce data management, reduce administrative burdens, enhance data quality, and empower individuals by providing verifiable employment and earnings records.

Organizations interested in leveraging the JEDx Test Suite and exploring the future of workforce data interoperability can reach out to the A4L Community at staff@a4l.org.

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About the Access 4 Learning Community
The Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community, and its special interest group the Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC), is a unique, non-profit collaboration composed of schools, districts, local authorities, states, US and International Ministries of Education, software vendors and consultants. The Community is “Powered by SIF” as its major technical tool to help manage learning data simply, securely and in a scalable, standard way regardless of platform. The SDPC is designed to address the day-to-day, real-world multi- faceted issues faced when protecting learner information by setting common expectations between market providers and end users. The A4L Community has united these education technology end users and providers in an unprecedented effort to ‘connect and secure effective learning ecosystems’ to give teachers more time to do what they do best: teach. For further information, visit https://www.A4L.org.

About the HR Open Standards Consortium
Founded in 1999, the HR Open Standards Consortium is the only independent, non-profit, volunteer-led organization dedicated to the development and promotion of a standard suite of specifications to enable human-resource-related data exchanges. HR Open’s voluntary consensus standards are free. Current, global HR vocabularies are developed in a transparent, collaborative based environment open to all HR technologists and organizations. For further information, visit https://www.hropenstandards.org/.

About the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation harnesses the power of business to create solutions for the good of America and the world. We anticipate, develop, and deploy solutions to challenges facing communities—today and tomorrow.

Penny Murray
Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community
+1 508-250-0482
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