University of Phoenix publishes new white paper on microservice using achieved skills to build confidence between students and employers

(Press-News.org) University of Phoenix today announced the publication of a new white paper, “Leveraging Achieved Skills to Improve Confidence Between Students and Employers,” authored by Francisco Contreras and Brandon Edwards of the University’s careers product team. The paper outlines how a record of a learners’ achievements and attested skills can help students and employers speak a common language of skills, and help working adult learners see where they may qualify—and where they are close—before they apply.

“When learners can see verified, granular skills mapped from their coursework and experience—and employers can see the same—confidence rises on both sides,” said Francisco Contreras, senior product manager. “This research shows how better skills transparency can prompt potentially qualified students to click ‘apply’.”

The white paper describes how University of Phoenix maps programs to market-relevant skills and captures those earned in courses alongside self-attested skills from prior work experience. Using a standardized skills taxonomy, the product team developed a microservice to track student achievements and skills. The microservice is then leveraged to identify job postings that align to a learner’s achieved and in-progress skills and surface those opportunities directly to the student.

Initial talent recruitment experiments highlighted in the paper show encouraging results: in one pilot posting shown to 22 students, more than 31% clicked to apply; 71% of those who clicked submitted a résumé; and 80% of submitters were rated “good candidates” by the recruiter. In a subsequent posting with 27 views, over 55% clicked to apply and 40% submitted a résumé.

“Our approach structures skills data so talent teams can match real-time job requirements with learners’ earned and self-attested skills,” said Brandon Edwards, engineer. “Behind the scenes, efficient queries allow talent recruiters to tune thresholds and quickly refine the pool of skills-aligned candidates.”

Key insights from the white paper include:

Skills are a shared language: Transparent, verifiable skills records help close the confidence gap for applicants and increase trust for hiring managers. Mapped and attested evidence of skills: Course-mapped skills plus self-attested competencies create a three-dimensional view beyond a traditional transcript. Recruiter efficiency: Fine-tuned skills matching and fast queries support quality candidate pools. Early outcomes: Pilot postings generated above-typical click-to-apply and résumé submission rates among matched students. Contreras and Edwards are part of the University’s Career Accelerator Team, a product team collaborating talent across functions and departments. The team, working from a user centric product methodology, brings together lead engineers and designers in an Agile model to design products supporting students and alumni. The achievements microservice is foundational to the development of the Talent Sourcing Tool, which when complete will connect employers with University of Phoenix students and alumni through the Career Navigator platform.

The product team focuses on student, alumni and employer experience, and engaged students and talent recruiters early in the integration planning, giving them a deep understanding of career-focused platform users. The team frequently interviews students and employers to learn how they experience and use platforms and products in real-time, helping to ensure the tool is built to help organizations efficiently connect with skills-aligned candidates while providing job seekers with a clear path to apply for opportunities. 

The white paper is available now in the University of Phoenix Media Center Thought Leadership library; readers can access the abstract and download the full report here.

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