O’Reilly Launches Verifiable Skills for Targeted Competency-Based Learning

New Solution Enables Skill Development and Focused Verification Across Organizations

BOSTON-January 12, 2026-O'Reilly, the premier learning platform for technology professionals, today announced the launch of verifiable skills, a competency-based skill development solution that maps specific capabilities in certain technologies and delivers targeted skill plans with only the content each learner needs. This approach eliminates learning waste and is designed to prove the learner's technical abilities.

Unlike traditional learning platforms that recommend broad, long courses, O'Reilly verifiable skills provides a clear developmental pathway from foundational concepts to full proficiency by mapping expert-defined competencies across five proficiency levels, with granular competencies defined at each level. O'Reilly verifiable skills guides learners with personalized plans that target their precise skill gaps, and awards them verifiable badges for demonstrated capabilities in individual competencies and across entire levels. These badges follow the Open Badges 2.0 standard with third-party verification, ensuring employers can instantly confirm that a badge holder's achievements are legitimate. And admins get visibility into their teams' learning progress and skill acquisition with metrics from assessments and hands-on practice.

Recent research from Gartner suggests that through 2027, generative AI will spawn new roles in software engineering and operations, "requiring 80% of the engineering workforce to upskill," while a June 2024 Gartner survey found that 85% of leaders believe AI and digital trends will dramatically increase skills development needs over the next three years.

"The shift toward skills-based hiring and internal mobility requires objective proficiency measurement that goes beyond traditional credentials and binary completion tracking," said Julie Baron, chief product officer at O'Reilly. "O'Reilly verifiable skills allows organizations to track meaningful skill development across their entire workforce with clear metrics that show skill plan adoption, learning investment, and advancement."

The initial launch of O'Reilly verifiable skills includes Python, Power BI, Java, and Kubernetes. Software architecture, AI agents, cloud platforms, cybersecurity, and more will be added later in 2026.

For more information about O'Reilly verifiable skills, please visit: https://www.oreilly.com/online-learning/verifiable-skills.html.

About O'Reilly

O'Reilly, the premier learning platform for technology professionals, offers the industry's most extensive catalog of high-quality technical and professional skills development courses. From AI, programming, and cloud technologies to essential business skills such as leadership training and critical thinking, O'Reilly delivers highly trusted content from its network of renowned experts that meets a diverse array of learning needs, with more than 59,000 books, over 5,000 role-based on-demand courses, nearly 200 live events each month, access to interactive sandboxes and labs, and more. For more information, visit https://www.oreilly.com.

Email a link to this press release