EBSI projects
Vocational Education & Training
Assisting European citizens in the acceptance and recognition of certifications for vocational education and training across Europe.
The vision
A consortium of Government ministries, federal and research institutes, public companies, and universities.
Together, they are pioneering the future of vocational education and training in Europe with EBSI by facilitating the issuance, acceptance, and recognition of all types of vocational educational and training certifications across borders.
Government Ministries
Public Organisations
Institutes
IT Providers
Vocational Education & Training
Participating countries:
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Government ministries:
Federal institutes:
Reasearch institutes:
Private companies:
Public companies:
Universities: (Issuers of educational credentials)
IT providers:
Infrastructure:
The challenge
The standardisation of vocational education qualification recognition in Europe is still limited.
Vocational education and training (VET) systems in Europe are not centrally governed but rather rely on a well-developed network of VET stakeholders. The social partners that govern these networks are employers and trade unions, structured as chambers, committees, and councils.
However, the way these social partners communicate and exchange information in Europe still faces challenges at administrative and regulatory levels, especially with the issuance, acceptance, and verification of paper or digital vocational education credentials. This is because vocational education qualifications in Europe lack administrative processes and regulatory implementation - including the use of standardised data models. This gap affects all levels of the process, resulting in a high number of steps, prolonged timeframes, shared and ambiguous responsibilities, or a reliance on intermediary third parties.
The opportunity
Web3 has the potential to revolutionise vocational education and training.
Web3 allows a streamlined digital verification process for learners' affiliations and credentials without a reliance on intermediaries, helping the Europe wide VET system strengthen the acceptance and popularity of vocational verifiable credentials while upholding user information privacy. This is specifically relevant when employers (verifiers) require professional and specific skills from the applicants: a reliable authentication process for vocational skillsets opens up novel career paths for the European vocational workforce.
A Web3 presentation and verification infrastructure for vocational credentials brings together three main technologies:
- Digital Wallets: used by vocational learners and institutions to receive, store and send credentials on the move.
- Verifiable Credentials: for formatting, presenting, and exchanging credential data in a machine-friendly way.
- Blockchain: for delivering a highly secure, resilient, and decentralised way of verifying credential information.
The project
Building the foundations of a new digital vocational education infrastructure using EBSI.
The project is leveraging the power of the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), to develop a seamless cross-border vocational education experience.
EBSI allows them to design, build, and operate the next generation of decentralised services. The objective is to promote intra-European migration, ideally gaining a better handle on the over- or under-supply of skilled workers at both individual and societal levels by:
- Improving the processing of vocational education qualifications by public and private administrators.
- Empowering vocational learners with full ownership of trusted digital qualifications through Web3 security and user-side selective disclosure.
- Facilitating the recognition of vocational education certificates across European institutions.
The scenario
Discover the scenarios.
1. Cross-border vocational education credentials.
Meet Maria, a global vocational learner.
- Maria graduates as a mechanical engineer at the University of Strasbourg (FR). The university 1 issues her a Bachelor Degree and Transcript of Records credentials that she seamlessly 2 stores in her personal digital wallet.
- Her journey brings her to apply to the Chamber of Handicrafts Dresden (DE) for a specialised training programme to become an International Welding Specialist. She 3 presents her previously acquired educational credentials to apply for the programme. The chamber is able to 4 verify her educational qualification against the EBSI ledger, 5 issuing Maria a student ID to be 6 stored in her wallet alongside her degree qualification.
- During her training programme, Maria moves to Sweden to complete an internship at RISE (Research Institute of Sweden). She 7 presents her student ID to apply for the programme, which RISE can 8 verify against the same ledger. Upon completion, RISE 9 issues Maria credentials attesting to the completion of the internship, which she 10 stores in her wallet.
- Upon return to Dresden to graduate from her specialised training program, she is 11 issued by the chamber her International Welding Specialist credential, which she 12 stores directly in her private digital wallet.
2. Job application with pre-requisite qualifications.
With her new welding credentials, Maria realises that doesn't know enough about working with brittle materials (including plastics). This makes her want to accompany her welding skills with composite materials skills.
- So, she heads to Bremen to apply for a Composite Materials Engineering Program from Fraunhofer IFAM (DE) by 13 presenting all previously acquired credentials, which the educational institution can 14 verify against the EBSI ledger and authenticate the credentials independently of the issuers. Upon completion, the institute uses their IT provider Fraunhofer FIT to 15 issue Maria a Composite Engineer Credential which she gains from passing a final exam. The qualifications now 16 stored on her digital wallet open her up to composite engineering career pathways as well as welding.
- With this, Maria can now confidently apply for a role as a composite engineer at GovPart in Krefeld (DE) by once again 17 presenting her newly acquired credentials. The employer can then 18 verify the credentials against the EBSI ledger, verifying her profile for further application processing.
The project plan
Current implementation stage and plan.
Next steps
Mobilisation of the ecosystem is key to driving adoption.
Achieving the goals of this project project demands a strategic and operational paradigm shift, mobilising a vast ecosystem involving legal entities, ministries, and learners. The creation of a cohesive digital infrastructure necessitates common guidelines, including a new identification system and authentication service for seamless integration between different types of vocational education and training institutions.
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