“The Real Deal” is a blog series published monthly on https://workshift.org/the-real-deal to explore the landscape of quality improvement for non-degree credentials. The series explores the meaning of quality in relation to non-degree credentials, profiles the quality influencers who seek to understand and strengthen learners’ quality outcomes, and documents the points of leverage stakeholders have, particularly policymakers at the state level. This initiative was supported by Lumina Foundation and the Walmart Foundation.
July 22, 2026 - Building the Noncredit Data Infrastructure: State-by-State, Institution-by-Institution
May 21, 2026 - Workforce Pell is Here. Noncredit Qualifies with Caveats
April 21, 2026 - An Exercise in Complexity
March 19, 2026 - How Can Higher Education Signal Relevance in a Skills-Focused World?
February 18, 2026 - The Quality Question: Making Sense of Nearly Two Million Credentials
January 7, 2026 - American Exceptionalism and Nondegree Credentials
November 12, 2025 - What’s the Purpose of Nondegree Credentials? It Depends.
September 23, 2025 - Are We Ready for Workforce Pell? What Research is Telling Us
July 30, 2025 - A Nutrition Label for Credentials
July 9, 2025 - From Scholarships to Data, Arkansas Redraws the Nondegree Playbook
May 14, 2025 - Accreditors and Nondegree Credentials: What’s Around the Corner?
March 19, 2025 - Learning about Quality: Two States on the Front Lines
February 18, 2025 - Expanding Quality Options
February 5, 2025 - Do Nondegree Credentials Boost Earnings? Why Researchers Haven’t Come Up with a Simple Answer
January 7, 2025 - Understanding Influencers in the World of Nondegree Credentials
November 13, 2024 - The Real Deal: Unpacking Quality for Nondegree Credentials
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