The Trump administration is predicting a renaissance for U.S. manufacturing, with millions of new jobs for workers without college degrees. The Biden administration had similar goals. Whether or not a manufacturing boom happens, the industry already is struggling to fill 450K open jobs.

Some of the roughly 200K members of the U.S. military who transition to civilian life every year could find good fits in manufacturing roles. A new partnership seeks to connect employers in the industry with veterans and transitioning service members—offering them digital credentials that recognize relevant skills they earned in the military.

The collaboration features Solutions for Information Design, Inc. (SOLID), the Manufacturing Institute, and iDatafy. It builds on the institute’s Manufacturing Readiness Project, which aims to make military experience comprehensible to civilian employers.

“We haven’t historically done a good job of showing them that their skills are transferable,” says Lauren Runco Bevilacqua, VP of innovation, strategy, and delivery at SOLID, which does military credentialing and skills translation.

The Details: Through the new integration, users can transfer digital badges they earn on SOLID’s platform directly into iDatafy’s SmartResume, which describes itself as a three-sided certified talent marketplace. The slate of digital badges represent technical skills and a suite of leadership credentials.

The digital credentials are backed by the Manufacturing Institute, and offer a connection to companies through the SmartResume platform. 

Participating veterans can upload their joint services transcript to have their skills translated into civilian language. By tying its brand to the process, the Manufacturing Institute is promoting the credibility of the credentials and the skills they validate, says Ian Davidson, SmartResume’s chief growth officer. 

“That’s a game changer because it makes it so much easier for a manufacturer to place their trust in the process and believe that the credentials have value,” he says.

That approach eliminates guesswork for employers, through standardization and clear skills translation, says Sytease Geib, a special projects manager for the Manufacturing Institute. “We have to have signals to validate skills and competencies in a way that’s trusted.”

Anheuser-Busch Signs On: The concept behind this collaboration is hardly new. I wrote about a digital badging project for veterans back in 2012. But the underlying technology has come a long way, as has urgency about the labor shortage in manufacturing.

Digital badges aren’t the innovative part of this new project, its leaders say. Credentials are just the vehicle. The real promise is about the quality of the information they capture and the connections to employers they help veterans forge.

“It shows them that they could step into those roles,” says Runco Bevilacqua. “And that there’s demand for those roles.”

Anheuser-Busch announced this week that it will be the first manufacturer to use the digital credentialing system.

That commitment is part of a $300M investment in the brewing giant’s U.S. manufacturing footprint. It will open a technical training center in Columbus, Ohio—joining a center for more advanced training in the company’s hometown of St. Louis. Anheuser-Busch says it will upskill its entire regional technical workforce at the new center over the next three years.

“The company will train its workforce on the credentialing system,” it said, “ensuring that recruiters understand how the unique skillsets of service members translate to these manufacturing roles at Anheuser-Busch and enabling them to apply that knowledge to thousands of applications annually.”

More than 10% of Anheuser-Busch’s 19K workers in the U.S. are veterans and active-duty military personnel, with 60% working in manufacturing roles.

Davidson says the digital credentials will make it much easier for Anheuser-Busch and other employers to find veterans with job-relevant skills. 

“They are brought together in a national talent marketplace where employers can not only promote their positions and see who comes to them, but they can set up alerts to be notified as new matching talent enters the marketplace,” he says. “It’s completely bi-directional.”

Runco Bevilacqua says the digital badges already can be displayed on Alabama’s Talent Triad job-matching site. The project’s goal is to expand its reach to other statewide platforms, as well as to industries beyond manufacturing, and a wide range of jobseekers.

The Kicker: “This is scalable beyond the military,” she says.