Learning company Pearson has acquired Credly, a digital workforce credentialing company. With this transaction, Pearson’s presence in the workforce skills sector expands, and it adds a robust credentialing service to its workforce analysis, learning and assessment capabilities.

Credly offers a platform for companies and organizations to award employees and workers credentials that verify their skills and help connect them with the right opportunities. More than 2,000 organizations have used Credly, and the company has issued more than 50 million credentials to 25 million users.

“The Credly acquisition is another important step in accelerating our strategy in the workforce skills market and in building connectivity across the entire Pearson portfolio,”said Andy Bird, chief executive of Pearson. “The growing skills gap is putting enormous pressure on the labor market, making verified credentials more essential than ever before. We originally invested in Credly in 2018 because we recognized its potential and have been impressed with the strong management team and their deep understanding of the talent market. Credly complements our other recent acquisition – Faethm – to address the full learner journey, enabling us to work with employers and employees to identify skills needs, provide learning to address those needs and offer trusted credentialing to prove proficiency.”