We face the biggest challenges humanity has ever encountered. We need extraordinary experts to solve those challenges and make the unthinkable reality. Experts who can heal, discover, challenge, and advance.

Degreed exists to discover, empower, and recognize the next generation of the world’s expertise. The smartest, brightest, and most bold, the tenacious, willing, the unsung heroes, self-taught, the scrappy, driven, the passionate, daring, the unafraid. Experts.

There is no single path to expertise. And our success in solving our unique problems depends not upon uniformity, but on our diversity, because our differences and uniqueness make us powerful. Everyone deserves recognition for their expertise, no matter how they got there.

The future depends on our commitment to be our best selves and discover our own personal missions. To become experts—each of us. The challenges of the future won’t care how you became an expert, just that you did. And that you made a difference.

Own your expertise. And join us in solving the future. 

Today we launched a new video showing how Degreed changes the way we learn at work, and not at work, and on our way to work…and anywhere else. Basically, Degreed is one big learning party, and you’re invited. The creation of this video made for an interesting production list- here are some behind the scenes stats on the production of “The New Way to Learn”
 

Items purchased for filming:
Old cafeteria trays (the more yellowed the better)
Mashed potatoes
Cheese slices
Tapioca pudding
Chicken nuggets
Fake cat paw with 2 cat sounds
Sushi
Desk Calendar
4th Grade Reflections Trophy provided by Degreed team member Ryan Baylis
 

Degreed Team members featured:
Casey Childs
Jeff Lamb
Caroline King
Ryan Baylis
David Johnson
Cate Williams
Caitlin Probst
Maggie Fero
Kat Kennedy
Kaneischa Johnson
Pam Wilcken
Jason Gill
Titan Sharp
 

Put all of that goodness together on camera, and you get “The New Way by Degreed”- check it out here:

We know there’s more than one pathway to expertise. We also know that amazing things happen when we use our expertise to solve big problems. 2016 was an incredible year for world discoveries, learning, expertise, humanity, technology, and education. And one thing is for sure- we’re learning like never before.

As we set our sights on 2017 we’re taking a good, hard look at what we learned in 2016. We’ve collected stories, data, and lessons from the past 12 months, and put it all together.

So, what did you learn in 2016? What will you learn in 2017?

If you want to make all that learning matter, you know where to find us.

As a rising generation of learners progress within their careers, they increasingly look beyond formal education to develop, sharpen and learn new skills. There are more online and informal learning resources than ever before (podcasts, MOOCs, books, boot camps, YouTube, conferences). All of this knowledge we’re acquiring through these different mediums combines to create our lifelong educations, each as unique as our fingerprint.

But despite the fact that learning is happening in every way and everywhere, keeping track of it all, measuring it and making it count is not happening for the most part. And it should.

Measuring the Education Combo

Learning doesn’t (and shouldn’t) end at college, but learning in 2016 and beyond isn’t just about new-age resources. It’s about combining both formal and informal education to create your unique expertise. This means college and online learning and real world experience and whatever comes next–the key word here is ‘and.’ We should be learning, progressing and stretching our knowledge all the time. But how are we making all of that count?

Many are taking advantage of the vast amount of learning content online. The problem isn’t the availability of learning resources. The problem lies in the need for a standard way to validate, measure and showcase everything we know to make all that learning count.

We are learning over the course of our entire lives–not just four, eight or 10 years of higher education. Yet the credential that sends the ultimate signal of learning (a degree) represents only the years you learned at a university. We need a standardized way to measure and verify all of our knowledge that goes way beyond formal education and embraces all types of learning and experience. Without that standard way to measure and express our lifelong learning to the world we face these kinds of situations:

• You’re employed in a field you didn’t study in college. How can you signal your expertise in a different field?
• How can you communicate how much more knowledge you’ve gained when you’re not pursuing or you’ve finished your formal education?
• How can we show a skill set earned through self-directed online learning in addition to a skill set learned in the halls of higher education?
• How can you know what skills you should master next to progress in your field?

These are problems we’re working to solve to create a world where everyone is empowered to continue learning and everyone has a standardized way to showcase what they know and can do. We believe the future of learning looks like this: continuous, lifelong progression, with each individual utilizing a standardized way to communicate all of their expertise to the world.

It means you have a collection of personal bests, lifetime learning and what you’re working on today to showcase.

Make Your Learning Count

We’re headed in the right direction. Increasingly, companies aren’t relying on a college degree to tell them if you’re qualified, and many want to teach you, gauge your knowledge themselves and help you to gain training and new skills. For most hiring managers, what really matters are the skills and potential a person has, not where they were gained. But the key to unlocking empowered lifelong learning for everyone is making it all count with standardized measurement. To provide the world with a way to make sense of all the learning that’s happening–no matter the source. Without this, individuals and companies lose the ability to make the best decisions for the future.

What can you do today to make all your learning count? You can start by tracking everything you’re learning and creating diverse goals around what you want to learn. Explore the different options and make it a personal requirement to start adding what you learn to that collection so that you can signal to the world how you’re gaining new knowledge and what you can do. You can do this on Degreed, where we’ve created a universal way for everyone to measure all learning and pursue skills and knowledge from all avenues.

As we move toward solving the biggest problems we’ve ever encountered, we need experts to rise up and bring their personal bests to the table–to roll up their sleeves and put skills to work. We won’t get there by leaning on degrees as the sole credential for knowledge gained. We will get there by exploring, improving, producing and collecting all of our knowledge. By measuring it and bringing it together to form our expertise.

An extended version of this post originally appeared on GettingSmart, check it out here.

Over the weekend the hashtag #FirstSevenJobs started trending as well known celebrities and experts tweeted out their first seven jobs. The posts showed us a few things; first, every path is different, and no background looks the same. Second, developing expertise usually takes years of work before any ‘big break’ appears.

#FirstSevenJobs is yet another reminder that there is no single path to expertise. We’ve talked about this before, but it’s pretty comforting to see how the path to accomplishment really shook out for a few people we admire. It’s important to recognize that these stories aren’t just anomalies in the world of success and accomplishment, so we’re providing a few more famous examples as proof.

#firstsevenjobs construction, bus boy, cafeteria server, library data entry, futon frame maker, futon salesman, waiter

— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) August 7, 2016

#firstsevenjobs WalMart stockman Lab tech Camera operator Lab tech again Online communications Freelance web designhttps://t.co/AgnfEquWhc — Hank Green (@hankgreen) August 6, 2016

#firstsevenjobs
Dish washer
Camp counselor
Fighter pilot
Astronaut
Commandant
Speaker
Author

Now Global Space Statesman!

— Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) August 7, 2016

#firstsevenjobs Salon receptionist☎️ Fast food worker? Bank Teller? Mom? Dental receptionist? Makeup artist? Plus Size Model? — Tess Holliday⚡️ (@Tess_Holliday) August 7, 2016

1. Stan Lee: Creator of the Marvel universe
obituary writer
press release writer
sandwich delivery boy
office boy for a trouser manufacture
usher at Rivoli Theater
newspaper salesman
assistant at Timely Comics (which would evolve into Marvel Comics by the 1960’s)

2. Martha Stewart
babysitter
model
stockbroker
caterer
cookbook author
newspaper columnist

3. Harland Sanders
horse carriage painter
farmhand
conductor for the streetcar company
teamster in the Army
blacksmith’s helper
ash pan cleaner for the Northern Alabama Railroad
fireman (steam engine stoker)
laborer for Norfold Western Railway
lawyer
laborer for Pennsylvania Railroad
life insurance salesman
ferry boat company owner
Secretary for the Chamber of Commerce in Columbus
started an acetylene lamp company
tire salesman
service station manager
Kentucky colonel
motel and restaurant Owner
assistant cafeteria manager
Kentucky Colonel
franchiser

4. Jan Koum: Founder of WhatsApp
cleaner at a grocery store
self taught engineer
security tester at Ernst & Young
infrastructure engineer
advertising system inspector at Yahoo
advertising platform team at Yahoo
WhatsApp founder

5. Julia Child
copywriter
local publication writer
advertister
typist for US information Agency in Washington DC
research assistant in the Secret Intelligence Division
researcher (developing shark repellent)
handled highly classified information for the OSS (Office of Strategic Services)
Chief of the OSS Registry
Cooking student

#FirstSevenJobs teaches us to be willing to work to get where we want to go, that it’s normal to forge a unique path to expertise, and it’s never too late to learn. What were your #FirstSevenJobs? Share them with us on Twitter @degreed and check out The Degreed Manifesto video below, which shows expertise in action:

To help L&D teams better engage employees, Degreed recently surveyed 512 people to understand how today’s workforce really builds their skills and fuels their careers. The findings, which are summarized in a new report titled, “How the Workforce Learns in 2016”, might make you rethink three common myths about workplace learning.

The infographic below showcases these 3 myths and the truths behind them. You can read more about them here.

Kelly Palmer, LinkedIn’s former Chief Learning Officer, recently joined Degreed to take on the newly created role as our own CLO. Kelly adds to a long roster of A-list hires from across the corporate learning, enterprise software and consumer edtech spectrum. We are incredibly excited to have her on the team and you should be, too. Here’s why…

Degreed is growing fast. We’ve already built a brilliant, diverse team of 120 designers, developers, engineers, product managers and customer success professionals to support our clients. And we’re just getting started. Bringing Kelly onboard is another meaningful investment in making sure Degreed’s talented team stays sharp and ready for more.

Equally important, Degreed is revolutionizing how enlightened employers build skills and fuel careers. Our customers – 100 of the world’s most sophisticated pioneering learning, talent and HR leaders (and counting) – want a partner who can provide more than a beautiful new technology. They’re also asking for guidance and support as they reengineer how they organize and operate their own teams.

Kelly, a recognized innovator and thought leader, is uniquely qualified to advise and coach other L&D leaders as they design and execute novel digital learning strategies. So she’s also here to help Degreed’s clients, companies like MasterCard, Microsoft, EMC and Xerox (and our friends in the learning and HR community at large) build the capabilities they need to adapt to the demands of today’s hyperkinetic workforce. She’s not alone, though.

Combined, Degreed’s highly skilled team has decades of experience building many of the leading brands in corporate learning, enterprise software and consumer education technology: Workday, Cornerstone OnDemand, SAP SuccessFactors, Microsoft, Skillsoft/SumTotal, Harvard Business Publishing, Bersin by Deloitte, IBM, MIT, Chegg, Pluralsight, Instructure and Lynda.com.

We’ve come together at Degreed to help you reinvent your learning experience. This is about more than just building an awesome new platform for developing and discovering workers’ skills. It’s about empowering people to enrich their lives, and enabling organizations to amplify their performance, by connecting all the world’s best education, training and lifelong learning resources. So all of those learning experiences can work better together for everyone.

Don’t take our word for it, though. If you’re interested in learning more about how Kelly and Degreed can help make all kinds of learning matter for your organization and your people, check out these resources from CLO magazine, Bigthink and Forbes. Then connect with Kelly on LinkedIn, and follow her on Twitter.

You can also track and follow everything Kelly is learning on Degreed.

by Beth Loeb Davies

What goes up…must come down.

We’ve all heard this before. In fact, you probably could have finished the sentence on your own. A basic lesson in gravity.

Luckily, this isn’t true for personal performance. You work hard to reach a professional peak, struggle along the way, perhaps even have moments when you feel like giving up, but don’t. Then, at some point, you realize you’ve achieved something you didn’t think you could. You’ve challenged yourself and met the challenge. How rewarding and exhilarating this can be. Now what? A fall? No way.

Reaching a peak gives you a new vantage point, showing you new places you can go, new challenges you can take on, new peaks you can strive for. Your potential and what you can achieve look different. Your confidence and self-esteem are boosted by your success. New peaks look possible. Keep climbing.

So, how do you reach a peak? It doesn’t happen by accident.

First, set a goal that you’re truly motivated to achieve. Motivation will carry you through the bumps you’re likely to encounter.

Then, expand your thinking and stretch your skills so you can reach the goal. Take advantage of the abundance of learning tools available. Read articles, watch videos, complete courses and get advice from a mentor. (Notice I said “and” rather than “or”. Take in as much information as you can from all the resources available to you.) Adopt or adapt the ideas that work for you.

Seek out people who can support you. Find a coach to guide you along the way. It’s easier and more enjoyable to climb with others.

Most importantly, take lots of steps large and small. With each step, hone your skills and let experience be your teacher.

Working hard to reach new peaks can be exhausting. It’s also what makes success taste so good.

This post was originally published on LinkedIn, by Beth Loeb Davies and has been republished here with permission from the author.

Here’s the thing: at Degreed we’ve created an awesome learning platform that gives people the power to track, validate and find learning from any source. We wouldn’t be able to do a really good job at building that without being obsessed with learning ourselves. We were thinking, what if we gave you a clear picture of how real people actually learn at Degreed? Last month we started doing just that- by diving into our own habits and learning goals with a profile of a Degreed team member each month.

Before we start with our next profile- you should know that at Degreed each employee receives $100 a month to learn whatever they want, and unlimited additional dollars if the learning is job related. This benefit is called FlexED, you’ll hear more about that below. Without further ado,  let’s meet Grace.

Grace Harrington has been a sales development rep at Degreed for almost 6 months. She lives in Salt Lake, but her heart will forever reside on the east coast. Grace is typically either getting involved in discussions concerning global politics (especially involving the Middle East and human rights issues), planning her next chance to break out her passport, or binge-watching documentaries on Netflix. This is how Grace learns:

What topics or skills are you interested in learning about?

International politics, sales, holistic health, human rights issues, feminism, religions of the world, and startups.

What’s your favorite way to learn? 

Conferences and live events

As a Degreed employee, you receive $100 a month for learning as FlexED, how do you like to use your FlexED? 

Books, classes (I just signed up for a ballroom class using FlexED!), community events- especially Impact Hub and AAISP.

Favorite Expert:

My favorite expert is Richard Falk. He is an international law professor at Princeton and former UN Special Reporter on “the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories”. He’s put out dozens of books on human rights, terrorism, globalization, etc. and published hundreds of articles on his research.

What are the biggest takeaways from what you’ve learned in the last 6 months? 

At a holistic luncheon back in August, I learned that cutting processed sugars and upping water intake is better for weight loss than cutting fats. I’ve lost 20lbs since then just from cutting soda, minimizing processed sugar intake, and drinking at least a gallon of water a day.

I attended a lecture at the Saudi Arabia Cultural Center in Farifax, VA in December on women’s health issues in Saudi and it was really eye-opening to some pressing issues on women’s health in the kingdom. I realized that while the country has definitely progressed in women’s rights issues the last few years, there is still a very long way for them to go!

How have your learning habits changed since joining Degreed? 

I find myself looking for more learning opportunities now that I am with Degreed. I like seeing how my knowledge in certain areas have grown, and being able to track and go back to learning I’ve done is really nice! It’s cool having all of my learning searchable in the system by topics that I’ve tagged.

What’s the most useful skill you’ve ever learned?

One of the most useful skills I’ve ever learned was Arabic. Aside from the obvious uses for travel and business, it also helped me meet my soon-to-be fiancée when I heard him tell his friend in Arabic that he thought I was pretty. He was shocked when I told him I understood the language!

What are your learning goals for 2016?

My goals for 2016 are to read 2 books a month: one to expand my knowledge of a targeted topic, and one that is more for fun. I want to really expand my knowledge about the presidential candidates, because none of them are really exciting me at this point. I also plan to write an original article bi-weekly and share it on LinkedIn for others to learn as well!

Grace’s Degreed Stats:

40 courses

163 books

164 articles

39 videos

Most active skills: marketing, leadership, teamwork, sales.

Check out Grace on Degreed here. You can also get credit for reading this article by clicking the button below. Throughout this “How We Learn” blog series we’ll be giving you a closer look at how we learn at Degreed, but we also want to know how you learn- so tweet us at @degreed and tell us what works best for you!

What do CLO’s really need to know about the learning ecosystem and how to best engage their employees? We’ve gathered 12 powerful stats about how workers truly learn and fuel their careers to help prepare you to meet the needs of the workforce. Click here to view our full research on how the workforce learns.

Want more? Get new research on how the workforce really learns in 2016.