Education technologies (edtech) increasingly control and influence students and teachers. However, policy and industry ambitions are expanding beyond improving learning outcomes to aligning labour market demands with curriculum. Advancing data-driven algorithmic systems are providing such opportunities in unprecedented - and untested - ways. Cradle-to-career pipelines are being set up to meet current job market skills. Examples include the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Job Data Exchange and, in Europe - Prometheus-X. This shift provides opportunities for progressive education but also risks narrowing and impoverishing education subjects, and reducing education to an endless race to meet market demands and unpredictability and adapt to technological changes. Within Human Capital Education discourse, room should be made about the priorities governments have to upholding children’s rights and freedoms by ensuring that educational institutions remain a sovereign pillar of society rather than merely serving industry needs, and the education community - the experts of pedagogy, learning and what is in children’s best interests.

Our research showcases several case studies (from the US and EU) showing how cradle-to-career pipelines align education with labour market needs due to market-driven globalism. Similarly, the EU is developing labour and education data infrastructures, such as Prometheus-X, to streamline curriculum design based on job market demands.

We deploy a multi-method approach using network governance lens to analyse the transformation of edtech and its implications for education reform. This approach recognizes that decisions about edtech integration and choice in education systems are inherently political. We then conduct extensive desk research, narrative and network analyses. Our US case studies include Virginia, where Amazon’s new headquarters influenced state curriculum changes through political decisions and the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Job Data Exchange and T3 Innovation Network, which set up national jobs and workforce data networks. These networks aim to develop ‘interoperable learning records’ and ‘data backpacks’ with micro-credentials to profile and predict student worker placements.

The contribution of this research lies at the intersection of education and social justice. It examines the hidden data pipeline systems emerging from the digitisation of education and the powerful public-private networks embedding them within public education. It identifies key actors influencing curriculum decisions and discusses the implications for children’s rights, needs and future life chances. Broadly, the work emphasises the importance of balancing digital opportunities with the value of non-digital pedagogical expertise in the classroom.

Keywords: Data pipelines, globalism, micro-credentials, interoperable learning records, neoliberalism, political-economy, pedagogy, curriculum.