The 2025–2026 federal LER mandate runs through this section: America's Talent Strategy, the $15M Connecting Talent to Opportunity (CTO) Challenge, OCTAE Program Memorandum 26-3, the ED–DOL partnership, and the OPM Merit Hiring Plan and U.S. Tech Force.
Federal documents in this section
3.1 America's Talent Strategy: Building the Workforce for the Golden Age (DOL/Commerce/ED, August 2025)
Joint strategic plan from the U.S. Departments of Labor, Commerce, and Education that explicitly aligns federal investment with industry-driven workforce outcomes. Built around five pillars: Industry-Driven Strategies, Worker Mobility, Integrated Systems, Accountability, and Flexibility and Innovation. Calls for a Credentials of Value scorecard, an AI Workforce Hub, AI literacy framework, and consolidation of workforce programs into a Make America Skilled Again (MASA) state grant.
3.2 ED–DOL Workforce Development Partnership (Interagency Agreement, May 21, 2025)
Economy Act (31 U.S.C. § 1535) Interagency Agreement under which DOL administers day-to-day operations of ED's Perkins V CTE and WIOA Title II Adult Education programs, while ED retains statutory authority. Operationalizes the integration directed by the workforce executive orders.
3.3 Connecting Talent to Opportunity (CTO) Challenge (ED, December 12, 2025; launch January 13, 2026)
The first federal funding mechanism to explicitly require Learning and Employment Records, a credential registry, and skills-based job description generators as core components of state Talent Marketplaces. $15M total over multiple phases. Eligible applicants are state Governors. Applications close April 30, 2026; semifinalists receive technical assistance during a six-month incubation phase. The Challenge defines a Talent Marketplace as a public digital system administered by a State Workforce Agency that integrates an LER, a Credential Registry, and a Skills-Based Job Description generator, leveraging AI to translate, transcribe, and transact learning assertions, job descriptions, and credentials as discrete competency statements.
3.4 OCTAE Program Memorandum 26-3 — Aligning Activities Under WIOA and Perkins V (February 4, 2026)
Direct ED guidance to states urging combined WIOA Combined State Plans that integrate Perkins V. The memo's definition of Talent Marketplace references LERs, Credential Registries, and skills-based job description generators verbatim from the CTO Challenge — making this the operational policy guidance for states pursuing CTO awards.
3.5 DOL ETA Training and Employment Notice (TEN) 08-25 (2026)
DOL transmittal of OCTAE Program Memorandum 26-3 to the entire public workforce system — distributing the unified-talent-development guidance to State Workforce Agencies, Workforce Boards, American Job Centers, ETA grantees, community colleges, and State Apprenticeship Agencies.
3.6 DOL TEGL 05-25 — Maximizing Innovation and Promoting Flexibility within WIOA (2025)
Encourages states to use WIOA waivers (Out-of-School Youth/In-School Youth mix, 90% On-the-Job Training, transitional jobs, Incumbent Worker Training) to advance integrated talent development without waiting for WIOA reauthorization.
DOL framework for AI literacy, developed pursuant to America's Talent Strategy and EO 14278's directive on incumbent-worker upskilling for AI.
3.8 OCTAE Program Memorandum 26-1 — WIOA State Plan Modification Requirements for PYs 2026 and 2027 (September 29, 2025)
Operationalizes integration of WIOA and Perkins V planning processes.
3.9 OPM Memorandum: Merit Hiring Plan (May 29, 2025)
Joint plan from the White House Domestic Policy Council and OPM implementing EO 14170. Codifies the 80-day time-to-hire goal, agency Talent Teams, Talent Pool Managers, Shared Certificate Coordinators, the Rule of Many, and a federal dashboard tracking compliance. Implements technical-assessment requirements from the bipartisan Chance to Compete Act (2024).
3.10 OPM Memorandum: Building the AI Workforce of the Future / U.S. Tech Force (December 2025)
Establishes the U.S. Tech Force program — a 1,000-person government-wide technologist pipeline using shared certificates and skills-based assessments. Coordinated through OPM, OMB, GSA, NSF, OSTP, and the White House.
3.11 OPM Rule of Many Final Rule (effective November 7, 2025)
Final rule implementing flexibility provisions of the Chance to Compete Act of 2024. Allows agencies to use technical/skills assessments to rank candidates and select from broader pools (top X percent, top N applicants, pass/fail thresholds).
3.12 Educational Opportunity Centers Program — FY 2026 Notice
Federal grant notice that explicitly incentivizes EOC projects integrating learning and employment records (LERs) with AI-enabled learner wallets and expanding access to talent marketplaces composed of credential registries, skills based job description generators, and LERs. First time the LER/talent-marketplace stack appears as a competitive priority in a TRIO program.
$175M in funding aligned with America's Talent Strategy; jointly administered by DOL/ETA on behalf of ED through the interagency agreement. Uses Absolute Priority structure to push grantees toward Registered Apprenticeship and short-term postsecondary credentials.
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