The Burning Glass Institute (BGI) has assessed more than 23,000 non-degree credentials from over 2,000 providers. The result of these assessments is the creation of the Credential Value Index (CVI) and the CVI Navigator tool designed to enable jobseekers to explore these outcomes. The CVI draws on millions of real-world career histories to provide an objective, data-driven view of how non-degree credentials impact workers' jobs, skills, and earnings. Our vision is to deliver ongoing evaluations of a comprehensive set of non-degree credentials that are user-friendly, empower real-world decisions, and accurately describe the lived experience of US learners.
Sources: Rather than relying on schools or training providers to tell us which non-degree credentials are moving the needle, we leverage the Burning Glass Institute’s proprietary database of career histories, representing more than 40% of the American workforce. We track employment, education, and skills over time—including which credentials workers earned, as well as when and from which provider they earned them. Providers do not opt in to be included in our analysis or supply this data. This “outside-in” approach ensures that we offer a transparent and independent view of credential performance.
Data Cleaning: Workers describe their credentials in many ways (for example, “Python Fundamentals” and “CS Fundamentals: Python” for the same credential). To make sense of this messy real-world data, we use a combination of hand review, machine learning, and natural language processing to standardize credential names, providers, and credential fields. We also classify some credentials as “certifications,” which are credentials that formally recognize a worker’s qualifications and skill set.
Our Metrics: While we calculate more than 50 different metrics from this dataset, the CVI tool showcases a core set of intuitive outcomes for jobseekers:
Constructing a Counterfactual: Workers who earn credentials are unlikely to be the same as those who don’t. Failing to account for these pre-existing differences would make it difficult to capture the true impact of the credential itself. One of the CVI’s most powerful innovations is its counterfactual analysis—a method that allows us to isolate the value of a credential by comparing workers who earned it with similar workers who didn’t. For every credential earner, we build a custom control group of individuals who match on key traits:
We then compare the outcomes of the credential earner to this matched group over time. If the credential earner sees better results—higher wages, more promotions, stronger skills—we can be more confident the credential played a meaningful role.
Understanding the Burning Glass Institute’s Career History Database: The Credential Value Index is powered by the Burning Glass Institute’s enriched database of more than 65 million individual U.S. career histories—about 40 percent of the workforce. This massive sample of individuals is broadly representative, including a diverse array of workers across all occupation types and spanning a wide range of educational backgrounds.
Each profile is parsed using the latest in artificial intelligence, and classified into a standard set of employers, education histories (including non-degree credentials), occupations, and job titles based on the Burning Glass Institute’s internally developed taxonomies. These data are then enriched to include other fields like the skills held by individuals over time, and we infer the wages of each worker in each year using internally developed wage models. These models combine data from Glassdoor with government data to produce highly accurate wage data, based on external validation conducted with the State of Florida’s administrative records.
Our Wage Estimates: To estimate wages, we use data from Glassdoor and the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), prioritizing Glassdoor’s more detailed information when possible. For each job, we analyze wages across geographic locations, companies, and years. We then calculate an average wage over a five-year period—two years prior and two years after the current year—and adjust for inflation using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). We include modeled estimates of how much a company or geographic location typically influences wages. If we’re missing wage data for a specific year, we estimate it using overall averages, adjusted for that company or location’s usual effect on pay. Our wage dataset runs through 2022. For future years, we estimate wages based on projected increases from the BLS.
We validated this model against a set of matched records from the state of Florida’s administrative records—which found that our median wage estimates were within 2 to 5% of the administrative source of truth in a vast majority of cases—and always within 10%.
With millions of non-degree credentials (NDC) available, learners deserve clear, independent information about which programs actually deliver career value. The Credential Value Index equips workers, employers, and policymakers with the insights they need to make more informed choices—helping ensure that education serves as a bridge to opportunity, not a dead end.
Opportunities For Improvement: By virtue of its pioneering nature, the Credential Value Index will not be perfect. We recognize that self-reported data comes with potential omissions and shortcomings, and we apply extensive spot-checking and modeling to prune dubious data points from the Index. We also recognize that backward looking data may not necessarily reflect the future value of a credential, especially newer credentials designed to help workers enter fields that are just beginning to emerge.
Rather than the final authority, the Credential Value Index should be considered a large-scale, robust sample that has rigorously analyzed millions of learner outcomes to derive actionable insights for learners, policymakers, and educators. This data represents the largest and most rigorously constructed database of credential outcomes available. Further, we are committed to constantly searching for opportunities to improve our data, including the development of improved modelling techniques and augmentations of our data. We welcome your feedback and suggestions to continue to enhance the value this database can offer.
With millions of non-degreed credentials available, learners deserve clear, independent information from independent, provider-agnostic third parties. The Credential Value Index equips workers, employers, and policymakers with the insights they need to make more informed choices — ensuring that education serves as a bridge to opportunity, not a dead end.
Danielle is a driven mid-career professional eager to take the next step. With ten years of experience and a strong performance record, she's eyeing a leadership role—but she knows she'll need to expand her skill set to get there. Whether it's learning data analytics, exploring product strategy, or sharpening her project management skills, she's looking for a credentialthat will position her for promotion—and increase her earning power.
What Danielle Needs:
• A clear path to advancement within her field
• Confidence that any investment in upskilling will pay off
• Data on which credentials actually lead to higher-paying, leadership roles
How the Credential Value Index Helps: The CVI helps Danielle identify targeted programs—like leadership certificates or project management bootcamps—that have helped other mid-career professionals in similar roles make the jump to senior positions. By showing real outcomes, CVI gives Danielle the clarity and confidence to take the next step in her career.
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After years in retail management, Marcus is ready for a change. He’s seen first-hand how unstable the industry can be and wants to transition into a more resilient field—like healthcare administration or IT support. He’s motivated to retrain, but with limited time and budget, he must be strategic about where he invests.
What Marcus Needs:
• A fast, affordable pathway into a new career
• Assurance that the credential will lead to real job opportunities
• Support navigating unfamiliar territory
How the Credential Value Index Helps: For Marcus, time and budget are critical. The CVI helps him identify fast, affordable pathways into resilient fields like health care administration or IT support. By showcasing career progressions of individuals who have successfully made similar transitions, and by providing data on the skills and qualifications employers are seeking, the CVI helps Marcus navigate this unfamiliar territory with greater confidence, reducing the risk associated with switching fields mid-career.
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Jasmine is the first in her family to attend college. She’s working part-time while studying business administration, and she’s determined to build a future with more financial security. But with so many education options—and student debt to consider—she wants to be sure she’s making smart decisions that will lead to good jobs, not just credentials that look good on paper but don’t deliver real value.
What Jasmine Needs:
• Clarity on which programs deliver real returns
• Guidance on the value of certificates, associate degrees, or transferring to a four-year school
• Confidence that her hard work will pay off
How the CVI Helps: The CVI offers Jasmine a clear view of pathways associated with different educational choices, from short-term certificates to associates degrees and beyond. By showcasing data on job placement and earning potential for graduates of various programs, the CVI helps Jasmine understand which options are most likely to provide a real return on her time and financial investment, giving her the confidence to choose a path that leads to greater financial security and sets her up for longer-term career growth.
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Rita works at a local workforce development agency, helping jobseekers navigate education, training, and employment pathways. Many of her clients are adults balancing work, family, and financial pressures. Rita is passionate about helping them succeed—but with so many new credential programs on the market, it’s increasingly difficult to know which ones truly deliver results.
What Rita Needs:
• Reliable data on the career impact of specific credentials
• Tools to analyze and compare the effectiveness of programs across various industries and education levels
• A way to guide clients with clarity and confidence
How the Credential Value Index Helps: The CVI provides Rita with reliable, data-driven insights she needs to effectively guide her clients. By offering real-world outcome data on a vast array of credentials across a broad spectrum of industries and education levels, the CVI allows Rita to steer her clients toward programs that are most likely to lead to sustainable employment and improved financial stability, increasing her effectiveness in helping them navigate their career journeys successfully.
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Matt built a strong technical foundation early in his career—earning a master’s degree, landing a competitive role, and steadily moving up the ranks. But now, after nearly a decade in the field, his progress has plateaued. The technical work still excites him, but promotions keep going to colleagues with more leadership experience or broader business skills. He’s not looking to start over—he’s looking to level up. Matt knows that to break into the next tier, he’ll need to build skills in areas like project management, stakeholder communication, and team leadership. What he doesn’t know is which programs will actually give him that edge.
What Matt Needs:
• Direction on which leadership or management credentials are respected in his field
• Evidence that an investment will lead to better roles or a higher salary
• A way to differentiate himself without stepping away from his technical strengths
How the Credential Value Index Helps: The CVI allows Matt identify leadership and management-focused programs that are recognized and valued within the data science and technology field. It provides data on how professionals with strong technical backgrounds, like his, have successfully leveraged credentials to advance into senior roles—empowering Matt to make informed decisions about his upskilling journey.
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