For too long, the hiring ecosystem has been trapped in a paradox: We built powerful ways to verify skills and learning — but no real way to move that verified data across platforms and into hiring conversations at scale.

Until now.

Today, iDatafy is thrilled to announce a breakthrough that promises to reshape the skills-based hiring movement: SkillSync™

SkillSync was developed by iDatafy to meet a challenge posed by its SmartResume product partners - how do we make verified skills truly portable and actionable in a format that employers already understand- the resume.

Here's why this matters:

Resumes are still the universal currency of the job market. But traditional resumes are built on claims, not proof. Job seekers can now AI-generate resumes packed with keywords from a job description — but employers have no easy way to know what’s real. SkillSync changes that by letting individuals bring trusted, verified skills directly into their resumes, backed by the brands and institutions that developed or validated them.

Through SkillSync, platforms like credential wallets and skill validation companies can now feed structured, verifiable skills data into SmartResume — including:

• Skill name and definition
  
  
• Skill category (Durable vs. Technical)
  
  
• Skill proficiency level (Beginner to Expert)
  
  
• Skill verifier (a.k.a. skill validator)
  
  
• Supporting evidence or validation method

On SmartResume, this verified data isn’t hidden or marginalized — it’s central.

Unverified skills remain editable by the user, just like traditional resume entries. Verified skills are locked to preserve trust, endorsed by the verifying organization, and job seekers control whether or not to feature them. 

This subtle innovation unlocks something huge: Instead of forcing employers to parse "badge walls" that clutter resume real estate, verified skills can be woven directly into the skills profile layer of a resume — economically, credibly, and in a format hiring systems already understand and respect.

In a world where resume inflation is being turbocharged by AI, SkillSync delivers the antidote: trusted data at scale, embedded where employers actually make decisions. No friction. No reinvention of the hiring wheel. Just resumes that finally tell the truth about what a person can do.

Why Not Badges?

This game-changing innovation didn’t happen by accident. It was born out of a growing movement to validate skills and help users build skills profiles to navigate the growing practice of skills-based hiring. But when validated skills use the Open Badge data standard to communicate who is verifying that skill, things can get clunky.

“Our Durable Skills Micro-credentials measure skills like Resilience, Oral Communication, and Collaboration. But that evaluation process first assesses a collection of stackable skills that lead to a microcredential for these durable skills,” explains Naomi Boyer, Senior VP, Digital Transformation at Education Design Lab. “When we ported both our micro-credentials and validated skills to SmartResume we had some users who had over 20 badges on their profile.  We needed a way to differentiate the skills themselves from the micro-credentials without overwhelming job seekers or employers.  SkillSync solves for that beautifully.”

It's worth understanding the distinction at the heart of this innovation. Validation is the process of determining whether a person has truly demonstrated a skill, often through performance-based assessments, credentialing, or real-world evidence. Verification ensures that this validated skill is technically trusted and tamper-proof when shared with others. Both are essential to building a skills-based hiring ecosystem rooted in confidence and clarity. SkillSync brings these two sides together, surfacing verified, validated skills where they matter most: the resume.

“Skills validation is no longer an experiment. It’s an imperative,” said Tara Laughlin, Director of Skills Development and Validation at Education Design Lab. “As an early user of SkillSync, we’ve worked with iDatafy to ensure that the Lab's validated durable skills can be clearly understood, consistently formatted, and trusted by employers. SkillSync has brought a new layer of usability to our ecosystem, translating what learners know and can do into a language hiring systems can act on.”

We didn’t take the easy way out. We put the learner at the center, and built the technology to serve them.

“With SkillSync skill validation organizations can verify the skills in the exact same manner as they can a digital credential, but more efficiently,” said Keith Hackett, Chief Product Officer of iDatafy. “This way we can solve one of the hardest challenges of LERs - presenting verifiable data in an easy-to-understand, easy-to-consume format for employers.”

This launch comes at a time of growing momentum for skills validation. As seen in recent showcases by the Skills Validation Network and Partnership for Skills Validation, employers and education providers alike are investing in new ways to assess and recognize real-world skills. With SkillSync, those validated skills can now travel further, integrated directly into resumes in a verifiable format. It’s a powerful bridge: pairing rigorous validation with seamless verification, a combination that significantly enhances trust.

In short: SmartResume just made skills portable in a way that actually matters for employment.

The Future Starts Here

The era of static resumes is ending. The era of SmartResumes — dynamic, verifiable, and skills-centered — is just beginning.

SkillSync is now live and available for integration. We invite every credential wallet, skills validator, and educational institution to join us in creating a hiring ecosystem where truth travels, skills matter, and learners win.

Learn more at SmartResume.com and explore how your organization can join this new wave of empowerment technology.

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