Quality Assurance Commons
Quality Assurance Commons is an independent U.S. nonprofit that developed the Essential Employability Qualities (EEQs) framework and operates the EEQ Certification process for colleges, universities, workforce programs, and corrections education. It serves educational institutions seeking to certify graduate employability outcomes.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2016
- HeadquartersSt. Helena, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Quality Assurance Commons does
Quality Assurance Commons (QA Commons) is an independent U.S. nonprofit organization founded in 2016 that operates as an applied research and quality-assurance body focused on the gap between postsecondary education and the workplace. It codifies and disseminates the Essential Employability Qualities (EEQs) framework — a set of eight competencies (Communication, Teamwork, Critical Thinking, Creativity & Problem-Solving, Learning & Adaptability, Professionalism & Responsibility, Motivation & Initiative, and Digital Literacy) — and operationalizes it through a structured EEQ Certification process grounded in five Standards of Care (Development of EEQs, Integrated Career Support Services, Employer Engagement, Student & Alumni Engagement, and Transparency of Outcomes). The framework is the only third-party employability certification described in the source material, and it has been adopted by more than 125 academic and workforce programs across 60+ institutions in over 20 states, impacting more than 90,000 students. QA Commons also issues digital Employability Skills Badges through the Credly platform, runs faculty professional development, offers internship preparation and third-party evaluation services, and extends the framework into justice-impacted, K-12 continuation, clean-energy CTE, and microelectronics workforce verticals.
QA Commons generates revenue through a hybrid model: fee-for-service contracts with educational institutions and workforce programs (EEQ Certification, consulting, evaluation, professional development) supplemented by philanthropic grants from foundations including Lumina Foundation (foundational 2016-2017 funder), Ascendium Education Group (three-year grant awarded in 2023), Strada Education Foundation (formerly USA Funds), and the Roger Trinchero Family Foundation. Go-to-market is sales-led and relationship-driven, executed through direct institutional outreach, conference presentations, content marketing via blog and newsletter, and partnerships with state systems (Kentucky was the first statewide adopter in 2018), accreditors (DEAC), and discipline associations (American Historical Association). The organization is lean — one full-time Executive Director supported by a network of part-time consultants with domain expertise in higher education, workforce development, and corrections — and is governed by a Board of Directors under founder Ralph Wolff, with Michelle Deasy as Executive Director since 2019.
Quality Assurance Commons firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Quality Assurance Commons
- Legal name
- QA Commons Inc.
- Website
- https://theqacommons.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2016
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Quality Assurance Commons is an independent U.S. nonprofit that developed the Essential Employability Qualities (EEQs) framework and operates the EEQ Certification process for colleges, universities, workforce programs, and corrections education. It serves educational institutions seeking to certify graduate employability outcomes.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Quality Assurance Commons industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Employability Certification Services
- NAICS
- Educational Services (611), Educational Support Services (611710)
- SIC
- Services-Educational Services (8200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Assessment, Certification & Qualifications Frameworks (BPADAKAL)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Qualifications Framework Authorities (NQF/Skills Framework) (EDADAFAB), Learning Content Editing, QA & Standards Alignment Services (EDAGAKAM)
Keywords
Where Quality Assurance Commons is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- St. Helena
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Quality Assurance Commons business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D
Revenue model
- Fee-for-Service Partnerships: QA Commons generates revenue through fee-for-service arrangements with educational institutions for EEQ Certification, professional development, consulting, and evaluation services.
- Philanthropic Grants: Grants from foundations including Lumina Foundation, Ascendium Education Group, and Roger Trinchero Family Foundation support innovation, underserved populations work, and research initiatives.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels5 records
Quality Assurance Commons product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Quality Assurance Commons (QA Commons) is a nonprofit organization that delivers the Essential Employability Qualities (EEQ) Certification and related quality assurance frameworks to higher education institutions, workforce development boards, and employers. Its offerings span certification programs, professional development, digital skills badging through Credly, third-party evaluation services, and consulting engagements designed to help institutions verify that students graduate with career-ready competencies.
Product overview
QA Commons offers a suite of interconnected employability-focused services centered around the Essential Employability Qualities (EEQs) framework and EEQ Certification process. The core offering combines EEQ Certification (a program-level quality assurance certification), Employability Skills Badging (via Credly), Professional Development (for faculty and staff), Internship Preparation, Evaluation Services, and Consulting/Technical Assistance. The EEQ Certification process helps programs identify and highlight curriculum activities that develop eight essential employability qualities (Communication, Teamwork, Critical Thinking, Creativity & Problem-Solving, Learning & Adaptability, Professionalism & Responsibility, Motivation & Initiative, and Digital Literacy), while the badging program allows students to earn verifiable digital credentials. The offerings are designed to work together as a comprehensive ecosystem supporting career readiness from education through employment.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- EEQ Certification (EEQ CERT): Professional development, program enhancement, and student services that help draw out and highlight activities within curricula that develop employability skills.
- Essential Employability Qualities (EEQs)
- Employability Skills Badges
- EEQ Suite
Products and services
- EEQ Certification
Quantifiable outcome
- Partnered with 125+ academic and workforce programs across 60+ institutions in 20+ states, impacting 90,000+ students
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Quality Assurance Commons
Customer profileNamed customers7 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Quality Assurance Commons technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration1 record
Feature4 records
Quality Assurance Commons partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core, strategic, foundational, supporting, emerging and completed.
- Missouri Department of CorrectionscorePartner on employability initiative to reduce recidivism through gainful employment. QA Commons trains and certifies Employment Transition Specialists and Reentry Coordinators, and updates MDOC's employability curriculum for incarcerated populations.
- Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network (FICGN)coreCollaboration with FICGN to engage formerly incarcerated persons with Success Coaches as part of the Ascendium-funded project supporting justice-impacted learners.
- SEMI FoundationstrategicQA Commons serves as third-party evaluator for SEMI Foundation's Career and Apprenticeship Network (SCAN), a Registered Apprenticeship program for the microelectronics industry. Also evaluating High Road to Microelectronics grant and SEMI Career and Apprenticeship Network in Arizona.
- American Historical AssociationstrategicLumina-funded partnership to engage eleven history programs at colleges and universities in developing unique employability skills badges to help students articulate skills in job searches.
- Kentucky Council on Postsecondary EducationfoundationalStatewide employability initiative partnership beginning in 2018. Kentucky was the first state in the nation to have programs achieve EEQ Certification.
- Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC)strategicCollaboration where DEAC-accredited schools engage in QA Commons' Employability Exploration exercise to explore student employability through surveys and reports.
- Gardner InstitutesupportingPartnership exploring how postsecondary institutions can gain faculty and staff support for the emerging focus on post-completion outcomes.
- Connecticut State Colleges & Universities (CSCU)strategicInitial self-assessment phase of EEQ Certification with 27 programs from nine Connecticut colleges and universities participating in 2020.
- Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle UniversityemergingTheater and Design programs beginning EEQ Certification process in 2026, with additional arts programs expected to follow. Focus on helping faculty and students articulate employability value of arts education.
- Bridge Valley Community & Technical CollegestrategicEight CTE programs began EEQ Certification process in 2025 as part of DOE-funded Industrial Assessment Training Centers expanding access to clean energy careers.
- Shippensburg UniversitycompletedPartnered with university's Office of Workforce Development to construct a methodological process for noncredit programming including course development proposal forms and labor market guides.
- Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL)strategicContracted by CAEL to evaluate Pennsylvania State System for Higher Education's #Prepared4PA project offering innovative programs for careers in Pennsylvania.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Quality Assurance Commons competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Credential Engine: Credential Engine provides a registry and transparency infrastructure for credentials across education and workforce, paralleling QA Commons' role as a credentialing quality body for employability-focused programs.
- National Skills Coalition: National Skills Coalition advances equitable workforce policy and employer-led training partnerships, frequently partnering with the same higher ed and workforce entities that QA Commons serves. Comparable intermediary role between employers, education, and policymakers.
- WorkCred (an affiliate of ANSI): WorkCred focuses on credential quality, certification, and connecting education to employment through standards work. Highly comparable to QA Commons' standards-based certification of programs around employability outcomes.
- Jobs for the Future (JFF): JFF is a national nonprofit driving education-to-employment transformation, including workforce partnerships, credentials of value, and postsecondary reform. Highly comparable mission and funder ecosystem (Lumina, Ascendium, federal agencies).
- Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U): AAC&U's LEAP framework defines essential learning outcomes including employability-oriented competencies, and runs VALUE rubrics for assessing them. Directly comparable to QA Commons' EEQ framework and program-level certification model.
- National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE): NACE defines career readiness competencies and provides assessment/benchmarking tools for colleges and employers. Like QA Commons, it operates at the intersection of higher education and workforce readiness with proprietary competency frameworks.
- Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL): CAEL bridges adult learners, workforce, and higher education and is a contracted evaluator/consultant for higher ed systems (e.g., the #Prepared4PA work QA Commons also supports). Directly comparable mission and institutional buyer base.
Emerging players
- SkillSurvey: SkillSurvey provides employability and soft-skill assessments used by employers and educational institutions. Comparable in measuring and signaling workplace readiness competencies to hiring decision-makers.
- Lightcast (formerly Burning Glass Institute / Emsi): Lightcast provides labor market analytics and post-completion outcomes data that informs program quality and employability. Adjacent but increasingly overlapping with QA Commons' evaluation and outcomes transparency work.
Broad incumbents
- Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM): SHRM defines HR competency models and credentials used across employers and educational institutions. Comparable as a broad competency-standards authority, though its scope is HR-specific rather than cross-disciplinary employability.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Quality Assurance Commons social profiles
Digital presenceQuality Assurance Commons financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Quality Assurance Commons leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles8 records
Quality Assurance Commons funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Quality Assurance Commons M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Quality Assurance Commons
What does Quality Assurance Commons do?
Quality Assurance Commons (QA Commons) is a nonprofit organization that delivers the Essential Employability Qualities (EEQ) Certification and related quality assurance frameworks to higher education institutions, workforce development boards, and employers. Its offerings span certification programs, professional development, digital skills badging through Credly, third-party evaluation services, and consulting engagements designed to help institutions verify that students graduate with career-ready competencies.
Is Quality Assurance Commons a public or private company?
Quality Assurance Commons is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Quality Assurance Commons founded?
Quality Assurance Commons was founded in 2016. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Quality Assurance Commons based?
Quality Assurance Commons is headquartered in St. Helena, United States, in the North America region.
How does Quality Assurance Commons make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Fee-for-Service Partnerships are the primary driver. The others are philanthropic Grants.
Who are Quality Assurance Commons's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Credential Engine, National Skills Coalition, WorkCred (an affiliate of ANSI), Jobs for the Future (JFF), Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U), National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) and Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL). Emerging players are SkillSurvey and Lightcast (formerly Burning Glass Institute / Emsi). Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does Quality Assurance Commons have an API?
No public API is recorded for Quality Assurance Commons.
What industry is Quality Assurance Commons in?
Quality Assurance Commons's product category is Employability Certification Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPADAKAL, Assessment, Certification & Qualifications Frameworks, with a secondary code of EDADAFAB, Qualifications Framework Authorities (NQF/Skills Framework). Its NAICS code is 611 and its SIC code is 8200.