Book Talk: When Credentials Cause Harm: Unpacking the Risks of Verifiable Learning and Work Records

Abstract

Verifiable Learning and Employment Records (LERs) and digital credentials promise a new era of mobility, recognition, and self-sovereignty. They are being rapidly deployed across education, workforce, and government systems as tools to improve hiring equity, skills recognition, and lifelong learning. But behind this promise lies a growing and underexamined reality: these technologies can also harm the very people they aim to empower.

Based on the new book When Credentials Cause Harm, this presentation explores the risks and inequities embedded in the design, deployment, and governance of digital credentialing systems. Drawing on real-world case studies, international frameworks, and original research, Dr. Kelly Page walks attendees through the unintended consequences of LERs, including surveillance, misrepresentation, exclusion, platform dependency, and the erosion of consent.

The session posed critical questions: Who decides what constitutes a valid skill and is recognized in a credential? What frameworks shape credentialing systems, and who gets left out? Why do so many platforms prioritize vendor opportunity and market incentives over human needs? And most importantly, how do we design alternative models of trust and recognition that truly center equity, justice, and care?

This presentation invites technologists, policymakers, researchers, and community practitioners to see digital credentials not as neutral tools but as socio-technical systems with real human consequences. It calls for accountability and consent frameworks that go beyond technical interoperability toward social interoperability grounded in justice and care.

Although enthusiasm for digital credentials is growing, few forums critically examine their risks, particularly for marginalized communities. This presentation addresses that gap by highlighting systemic design issues, funding incentives, and governance failures that often remain invisible.

The topic is especially timely as governments, agencies, and technology vendors rapidly scale verifiable Learning and Employment Record (LER) systems with limited public understanding or oversight. It speaks to audiences committed to innovation in the public interest and willing to ask not only whether we can build such systems, but whether we should—and for whom.

The aim of the presentation was to:

• Expose the hidden risks and social harms of digital credentialing systems.
• Increase awareness of equity and justice concerns in LER design and deployment.
• Provide attendees with a critical lens and practical design alternatives.
• Mobilize support for new accountability efforts through the Paris Declaration for Open Recognition.

Participants were able to:

1. Identify at least three ways digital credentials can reinforce inequity or cause harm.
2. Analyze the role of funding and governance in shaping digital credential infrastructure.
3. Apply key design principles for ethical and inclusive credentialing.
4. Assess the impact of credential frameworks on recognition systems.
5. Engage with a global movement toward ethical oversight through the Paris Declaration for Open Recognition.

Keywords: digital credentials, Learning and Employment Records (LERs)