Industry-recognized certifications (IRCs) are designed by businesses, industrial groups, and state agencies to enable students to demonstrate their skills related to a specific profession and to enable industries to know whether potential employees are qualified for specific jobs. To understand the value of these certifications, Matt Giani analyzed data from more than a million Texas public high school graduates. The data showed some positive relationships between IRCs and students' future earnings and college enrollment and persistence, but the links are sometimes weak and vary depending on the IRC earned. And most students earning an IRC did not move on to work or postsecondary study in areas aligned with their credentials.