EBSI’s success stories

Micro-credentials

A PhD student applies for specific courses in a foreign country

The project

This project is connecting two CEF-funded projects. One from the Tampere University in Finland (called MicroBlock) and the other from the Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania (called DLTnode). Both Universities belong to the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU). Furthermore, the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) has been selected as a mechanism to remove the need for a separate national TAO.

The ECIU looks into new educational models where, among others, micro-credential short learning programmes are being co-developed between different types of institutions around Europe. Micro-credentials are a recommendation from the Council of the EU.

In ECIU, two types of learning programmes are offered: challenged-based opportunities, where students team up on solving societal challenges, and micro-module programmes. The objective of the project is to build upon European best practices and infrastructures for the benefits of learners. We allow learners to get a proof and their learning outcomes as well as competences data that they can show to other actors. We give learners more control over their own credentials so that they can build an online portfolio to track all of their learning, reuse it to get a job or apply for further training all across Europe and have the ability to present it at any point in their career.

This is where EBSI steps in. We are leveraging on EBSI to implement cross-border verification of education credentials. This means that EDCL-based digital credentials with its data (e.g., competences developed) can be exchanged between European HE institutions in a standard way and the learning can be recognized.

The ultimate ambition and value proposition is the simplicity and reliability of the cross-border issuance and verification of digital credentials and the realisation of flexible study pathways for learners.

Check out the demo video to gather more information on how EBSI makes this possible.

Diploma use case
Participating countries:
National authority (Issuers of VID):
Universities (Issuers of educational credentials):
Wallet provider:
Infrastructure:

The scenario

01

Request of an Academic ID (Verifiable Credentials) and Micro-Credential

Anna is Finnish student with a working background in Business Administration. She is in need of upskilling herself due to the switching focus to circular economy. Many of the studies she is interested in are short learning experiences that are often outside her own university.

She requests an Academic ID (Verifiable Credential) from the Tampere university as well as a micro-credential (& academic credits) for the completion of a specific course.

02

Application for a course by sharing Academic ID and Micro-Credential

She applies for a learning in this field at the Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) with whom she shares here Academic ID (Verifiable Credential) and micro-credential in order to apply for a relevant course concerning this topic.

03

KTU verifies Academic ID and Micro-Credentials

KTU verified both, Academic ID to provide entry to the Academic system and micro-credentials as a prerequisite to enrol on a module, and now she is enrolled for this specific course at their university.

04

Receive a Micro-Credential and share it with Home University

After following and passing the course, she receives a micro-credential from KTU and Anna can now share and present her external learning achievement to her home university.