Nearly 2 million Indiana adults lack credentials beyond high school, limiting their earning potential and career advancement.

As Indiana's largest postsecondary institution and the nation's largest singly accredited statewide community college system, Ivy Tech Community College is committed to providing accessible, affordable education aligned with Indiana's high-demand, high-wage industries. Ivy Tech serves approximately 180,000 students across 19 campuses: about 60% are low-income learners, 40% are first-generation college students, and 70% attend part-time while balancing work and family responsibilities. 

To better support these students, there needs to be clear pathways to stack industry certifications toward degrees and careers. Students and the staff and faculty supporting them need to be able to track what certifications they have earned, how those align with their career goals, and what other credentials they should be working toward.

Tracking that information also allows Ivy Tech to work with educators, employers, and policymakers to address areas where more skilled workers are needed.

In partnership with Axim Collaborative, Ivy Tech is creating a digital ecosystem to track certification attainment and connect credentials to employment outcomes for students. Over three years, this collaboration will establish infrastructure to track, validate, and showcase industry certifications across Indiana. Partnering with CredLens, a national data trust and data provider for non-degree credentials, Ivy Tech will automate certification data collection, validation, and reporting. This partnership transforms the current process of manually tracking 30 certifications—which requires over 2,100 staff hours annually—into an efficient, statewide system.