Standards
CTDL
Also known as: Credential Transparency Description Language
The US credential-transparency data model from Credential Engine — the parallel to ESCO for US labor-market credentials.
CTDL (Credential Transparency Description Language) is the data model Credential Engine maintains for describing credentials, competencies, and learning outcomes in the US labor market. It's the canonical framework for programs wanting to publish credentials to the Credential Registry — a public, searchable index of US credentials that career-services platforms and workforce programs consume.
CTDL and ESCO occupy parallel positions in their markets. CTDL is US-centric (maps to O*NET occupations, federal funding categorizations, state licensing boards); ESCO is EU-centric (maps to European qualifications framework, member-state labor ministries). Both are RDF/Linked Data schemas and both can be referenced from OB 3.0 alignment entries.
LearnCoin credentials can declare CTDL alignments via OB 3.0 alignment targetFramework="CTDL". Tenants planning to expose credentials via the Credential Registry need to align with CTDL; LearnCoin carries the alignment through but doesn't do the CTDL mapping work itself — that's pedagogical.
Related terms