This issue focuses on the National Alliance of Business's work with employers to sort out how certificates can most effectively indicate workplace skills and requirements and confirm that certified individuals possess them. "Skills Certificates Signal Competencies in a Demand-Driven Economy" discusses the needs to which certificates respond; how the certificate trend is changing the profile of "educated" workers and the sum and substance of education and training; the quality of the knowledge and skills that certificates represent; "stackable" credentials; traditional education as a demand-driven system; and a model that relies on K-12 achievement. "Viewpoint" (Bruce D. Keener) considers how crucial certificates are in helping the labor market move at the speed of business."Together, Businesses, Training Providers Set Standards for Skills Certificates" describes cooperation among the business community, community colleges, and workforce to supply skilled workers and "coopetition," in which companies compete for customers, but collaborate on standards for training and on ways to credential and certify job skills. "Certificates Make Community Colleges a Hot Spot in Skills Training" sees community colleges as natural partners for businesses and industries seeking to build a supply chain of workers, and advocates starting programs only if business and industry generate a need and using technology to assess competencies. (YLB)