Editor’s Note: We celebrated the 2026 National #TransferStudentWeek ↗ October 19-23, 2026. Keep this momentum going by supporting “Start from Yes,” the Joint Statement on Credit Evaluation & Learning Mobility.
By Michelle Mott, Consultant, Innovative Credentials Project Manager, AACRAO
AACRAO is helping lead the next phase of national collaboration to make learning more portable, trusted, and useful for learners throughout their education and career journeys.
During the 2026 National Transfer Student Week, 16 national organizations launched the Learning Mobility Coalition, a cross-sector initiative, led by AACRAO, that brings together leaders from higher education, workforce development, employers, and states to advance learning mobility. The launch builds on three years of work through the LER Accelerator, which demonstrated the value of coordinated action in advancing interoperable Learning and Employment Records.
As learners move among institutions, jobs, and other learning experiences, their records of courses, credentials, skills, and prior learning often remain fragmented across systems. The Coalition aims to address these barriers by strengthening institutional capacity, coordinating technical assistance, advancing shared infrastructure, and connecting institutional learning records with state talent marketplaces and other workforce systems.
“AACRAO is proud to continue convening this work through the Learning Mobility Coalition, bringing together education, employer, workforce, and state partners to strengthen the systems and practices that help put learning records to work for learners,” said AACRAO Executive Director Melanie Gottlieb.
New Release: Lessons from the LER Accelerator Cohort
The Coalition’s launch coincides with the release of Foundations for Learning Mobility & Talent Marketplaces: Lessons from the LER Accelerator Cohort, a new brief examining the experiences of 22 institutions and systems across 14 states during the 2025-2026 LER Accelerator cohort.
Over a structured planning year, participating institutions developed roadmaps, strengthened cross-functional collaboration, and explored the governance, skills mapping, and institutional processes needed to prepare for LER adoption. Their experiences offer practical lessons for institutions navigating this evolving landscape.
The brief highlights several findings:
- LERs are a process, not a product. Sustainable progress requires attention to institutional practices, governance, stakeholder alignment, and skills mapping, not just technology procurement.
- Cross-functional collaboration is essential. Registrars, faculty, career services, IT teams, and senior leaders all have a role in developing trusted, interoperable learning records.
- Leadership and dedicated capacity must go hand in hand. Institutions made the most progress when executive sponsorship was paired with staff responsible for advancing the work.
- Employer engagement remains a challenge. Connecting institutional records with workforce systems requires sustained relationship-building, shared language, and coordination beyond individual campuses.
The brief also underscores a growing challenge: state investments in talent marketplaces are advancing faster than institutional readiness to supply the verified, skills-mapped records those systems need. Closing that gap will require investment in institutional capacity, coordinated technical assistance, and stronger connections between colleges and universities, state agencies, and employers.
Building on a Foundation for the Future
The Learning Mobility Coalition carries the LER Accelerator’s foundation into a broader, cross-sector effort. It also creates an opportunity to connect the experience of cohort institutions with other institutions and state initiatives working to advance learning mobility.
For AACRAO Members …
This work reinforces the importance of the registrar’s role in stewarding trusted learning records and supporting the policies, processes, and infrastructure that allow those records to move across systems. As talent marketplaces and skills-based approaches continue to develop, institutional readiness and interoperability will be increasingly important to ensuring learners can carry their achievements forward.
The long-term vision is an ecosystem where learning moves with the learner.
share