EBSI’s success stories

Licence to Practice

A graduated citizen applies for a job with a degree from another foreign country

The project

In Cyprus and around Europe, for many types of studies (e.g., Engineering, medical studies, etc.) it is required that University graduates are in possession of a license or certificate to practice, issued by a competent National professional authority, so that they can legally embark on their professional career of choice. There exists approx. a dozen of major professional associations or chambers, authorized to issue licenses or certificates to practice in Cyprus.

When zooming into the Engineering field, 15% of the total annual graduation requires a License to practice to be issued by ETEK (The Cyprus Technical and Scientific Chamber). At the same time, many Cypriot students are studying abroad which often requires cross-border issuance and verification of credentials. Greece is the second most popular academic destination for Cyprus students, with a share in the region of 30% Cypriot graduates.

The current process to issue a licence to practice is mostly manual. This results in several challenges such as time delays (it takes a minimum of three months to have a licence to practice issued), considerable administrative costs, as well as vulnerability to human errors and fraud. This has a negative impact on its reliability, and an adverse effect on the level of stakeholders' trust to the current process.

GOLDMAN Solutions and Services Ltd has partnered with the Greek Universities network (GUnet), the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy of Cyprus and ETEK to address these challenges and allow the issuance, sharing and verification of education credentials (and more specifically, licence to practice credential) across borders by using EBSI.

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

The scenario

01

Apply for a job in Cyprus

Eva is a Cypriot citizen and Engineering/Science graduate from the University of Athens in Greece who returns to Cyprus to apply for a job.

02

ETEK Membership Qualification

She wishes to qualify for an ETEK membership (The Cyprus Technical and Scientific Chamber) so that she has a licence to practice and can apply for an IT vacancy in the Cypriot industry.

03

Verifiable ID obtained in Ariadni Portal and request issuance of a Diploma

Eva requests from CY government (via the Ariadni portal) to be issued with a Verifiable ID (Verifiable Credential). She then requests from the University of Athens (via the eDiplomas portal of GUnet) to issue her diploma (Verifiable Attestation).

04

ETEK Licence to Practice

Eva finally requests via ETEK’s portal for a Licence to Practice, authorising access to her existing wallet credentials (VID and diploma) for viewing and evaluation.

05

Diploma Verification, issuance of a Licence and permit to verify Verifiable Credentials

ETEK verifies her Credentials, enrols Eva, and issues her Licence to Practice. She can now support job applications, by presenting her license to practice credential to any prospective employer of her choice through the EBSI GW portal; anyone can create an account in the portal and use it to view/validate credentials presented to them by CY-EBSI wallet holders.