The Credential Access Gap Is 2026's Defining Workforce Challenge. Here's How Employers Close It.

Something has shifted in how the global workforce thinks about survival. According to the 2026 ETS Human Progress Report, a Harris Poll study of more than 32,000 workers across 18 countries, job security is no longer a function of tenure or title. It is a function of adaptability. Seventy-seven percent of workers now say job security doesn't exist unless they continuously evolve.

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That evolution is happening in real time. Workers no longer wait for annual training cycles. They build skills continuously, in the flow of work. ETS calls it "learning in motion." But learning, the report makes clear, is no longer enough on its own. Skills have become the primary currency of work. And in ETS's words, they only hold value "when they can be refreshed, demonstrated, and trusted."

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That last word is where the old signals break down. Tenure, job titles, and academic transcripts once stood in for capability. In a market where 42% of workers say the skills their role demands changed in the past year alone, those signals no longer prove what a person can actually do today. Workers know it. The report found that people increasingly see credentials, verifiable third-party proof of skills, as the clearest way to establish stability. ETS describes them as "the bridge between rapid change and individual stability."

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Here's the problem: most workers can't reach the bridge.

A 27-point gap that defines the moment

The report's starkest finding is the distance between demand and access. Eighty-five percent of workers say credentials are now essential to stay relevant. Yet only 45% have access to a credentialing program, while 73% want one. ETS calls that 27-point gap "the defining challenge of workforce development." Put plainly: more than one in three interested workers is locked out of the proof they need.

And they aren't asking for just any credential. Workers want proof that is verified, comparable, and portable. Seventy-four percent want to benchmark their skills against industry peers. Seventy-six percent wish they knew how their abilities compared to others in their sector. Seventy-three percent say they can't even tell what level of competency (AI literacy, for example) employers actually expect. This isn't a shortage of courses. It's a shortage of trusted, portable evidence.

Why this is now an employer's problem

The ETS report doesn't leave the gap as an individual burden to carry. Its first concluding imperative is unambiguous: employers, across both the private and public sectors, "must play a vital role in closing the credential access gap that prevents workers from obtaining the proof they need to stay relevant."

For talent and transformation leaders, that reframes the stakes. Enterprises already invest billions in developing their people. But capability that can't be recognized at scale doesn't translate into business value. When a program completion disappears into a single internal system, the company can't prove what its workforce can do, top performers conclude their growth isn't seen, and leadership has no defensible signal of what all that investment produced. That is the difference between activity and ROI.

"As a former chief learning officer, I lived this problem. You pour resources into developing your people, and then their progress disappears into a system no one outside the team can see. Pairing Workera's verified proficiency with Credly's portable credentials changes that. It turns development into proof that travels with the employee and holds up in the decisions that matter."

Jim Hemgen, VP of Partnerships at Workera; former Chief Learning Officer, Booz Allen Hamilton

How Workera and Credly close the gap

This is exactly the gap the Workera × Credly integration is built to close. When a participant completes an eligible program in Workera, a portable, verifiable Credly badge issues automatically and travels with them across LinkedIn, HRIS profiles, and the broader career ecosystem. Achievements that once lived in one platform become recognized professional currency everywhere decisions get made.

The distinction that matters is what stands behind the badge. Workera credentials are grounded in verified, measured proficiency, not inferred from a résumé or self-reported through a checkbox. That is precisely the comparable, trustworthy evidence the ETS data says workers are missing. For leaders, it converts workforce development into an externally recognized, defensible signal of capability, one that strengthens the board-facing AI-readiness narrative, improves retention because growth is finally visible, and connects directly to hiring, mobility, and redeployment decisions.

The results show up fast. Siemens Energy saw a 62% improvement in generative-AI skills in two weeks, with 97% of employees certified in under 90 days, and that capability is now verifiable, portable, and provable.

The bridge, built

The 2026 ETS data captures a workforce ready to adapt but waiting for the infrastructure to catch up. The organizations that build the bridge, the ones that turn continuous learning into verified, portable, recognized proof, won't simply close a gap for their people. They'll convert their single largest talent investment into something they can finally stand behind.

Every program completion, recognized everywhere it matters.

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See how the Workera × Credly integration works, or book a demo to make your workforce's capability provable.

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Sources: 2026 ETS Human Progress Report (The Harris Poll for ETS).‍

‍All worker statistics attributed to ETS; all product and customer claims are Workera's.

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