<daniel_khan> Marcin will join 5-10 mins from now

<ildiko_mazar_(ntt_data)> Hello everyone, welcome to today's Verifiable Credentials for Education task force call. Let's start with the usual IP Note: Anyone can participate in these calls. However, all substantive contributors to any CCG Work Items must be members of the CCG with full IPR agreements signed. Please note that these meetings are recorded. We have a robot transcriber and we also do an audio and a video recording. If you want to speak, please raise your hand, or type “q+” in the chat to add yourself to the queue.

<ildiko_mazar_(ntt_data)> Thanks, Simone.

<simone_ravaioli> Hello Céline ! Thanks for joining us...

<simone_ravaioli> Hello Michal ! Great to see you.

<simone_ravaioli> yes, I think it is the transcriber... let's go on.

Céline_Jambon: Just for Learning and the European learning model so the European learning model is the data model that is behind the European credentials for learning. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Um do search through credentials for learning or um a set of Standards but we also um have specific software for the issuing the storing ceiling signing um and sharing of credentials. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Um our broader policy context is the European pillar of social rights and its action plan um and in particular of the first action did that is related to uh Education and Training. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Policy context also covers the European skills agenda that was adopted in 2020. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Um and also the um European education area communication. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Um we also have a different policy document and background directly uh underpinning that the credentials for learning in particular the europas decision which is uh the legal base for the commission to develop this part of the infrastructure. ✪

Céline_Jambon: And uh the European qualifications framework um their looks like qualifications but it also has an Annex that looks directly at um the data field on how to describe uh qualification in the EU. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Um on top of that we have the micro credentials Council recommendation that has a the same approach as the European qualification framework it has an Annex um with data fields on how to describe a micro credential in Europe and those all these uh data fields of the basis for uh creating digital credentials under the European do credentials for learning framework. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Uh finally we can mention a few other documents the digital education action plan um the digital decade as well the European skills competencies and occupations taxonomy and the individual learning account recommendation that refers directly to um this credentials. ✪

Céline_Jambon: In the next slide. ✪

Céline_Jambon: You can see um the borrower context for the European super dangerous for learning um why is the commission interested well first of all it is an increasingly um digitalizing world so we need to have adaptability and to have a flexibility to move away from or on top of paper to uh have a to solution and it is fully aligned with the commission and the EU border digital strategy. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Um for us the key pillar as well is uh security and Trust so we have Temple proof credentials um or rather tempor evident credentials within based on an e that is based on EU uh legislation that ensures that we have more we have a recognition of the electronic seals that we are using and it is also um important for us to uh fight uh diploma means and the fraud in the field of education training credentials. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Recognition so um as the European commission we are looking at ways uh to support uh labor and learning mobility in the union and 1 of the ways uh to support that 1 is um to have recognition and to have a simple way of presenting both knowledge and uh skills and where does the knowledge come from. ✪

Céline_Jambon: We have a standardized presentation it's uh can get easier for recognition body in their assessment of the different skills and knowledge um due to also uh the rendering of the different achievements and it's also transparent On the Origin so we ensure that stakeholders know the source and the authenticity of every credentials thus fostering the trust. ✪

Céline_Jambon: The fourth point is showcasing Knowledge and Skills so there um we have a a high adaptability to labor market uh needs and relevance because we have this focus on learning outcomes and achievements and skills so to go beyond as well um qualifications but to look at skills directly and it's also a lifelong learning approach meaning that uh we do not focus only on formal education but we also consider non-formal education and we look at all the different sectors we look at adult learning in the same way that we look at the vocational education and training at Apprentice ships uh but also at general education. ✪

Céline_Jambon: And finally what is also very important for us is the ownership of data so the recipient of the credential is the 1 in control of the wallet and their portfolio so it will Empower them because they have control of all their achievements and also ensures data privacy and security. ✪

Céline_Jambon: All these um landscape of wallets and portfolios um Can facilitate the easier management the sharing and also the verification of the credentials in uh disconnected ecosystem where the owner can share only a presentation of uh the credential so it makes it easier for them to um navigate the different landscape. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Um in the next slide you will see a brief overview of um all the different evolution of the infrastructure since 2023 um 2023 was a very big year a milestone in the European credentials for learning um development because we had a major upgrade moving uh towards the latest version of our data model the European learning model and at the same time we upgraded the whole infrastructure into uh Jason um credentials. ✪

Céline_Jambon: In our next release last year we introduced accreditation with um a connection with the European data um the European um data um Quality Assurance register and we also had uh another release looking at uh improving usability and credential visualization. ✪

<simone_ravaioli> DEQAR - https://www.eqar.eu/about/projects/deqar-project/about-deqar/

Céline_Jambon: Finally and this is a bit the core for tonight's presentation is um the latest 2.3 uh update and we are very happy um to present it to you and I will hand over the floor to uh my colleague Justin Cook to do the presentation. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Thank you very much Selene so I will take you through some of the updates that are coming in at EDC 2.3. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Uh if I just go to the next slide okay so um the EDC infrastructure is is made up of a number of components um we have a viewer we have the online credential Builder we have the wallet and verify it. ✪

Justin_Cooke: So focusing on the viewer and the ocp to start with. ✪

Justin_Cooke: We have 1 of the I guess 1 of the biggest changes in the release. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Which is about the uh validity of the signatures in the credentials. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Mimic in the paper world where we expect a diploma to be valid for life. ✪

Justin_Cooke: we need. ✪

Justin_Cooke: To make sure that any credentials that are issued to the uh to the students and so on uh also valid for life. ✪

Justin_Cooke: And the way we do this is to extend the signature validity of the credentials because typically they are only valid for a number of years. ✪

Justin_Cooke: So this feature is about allowing the uh well basically the viewer will provide information to the user when the upload a credential to tell them if the signature is about to expire. ✪

Justin_Cooke: and if. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Is about to expire I think it's within 12 months. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Then the system will propose to sign the credential uh sorry extend the signature of the credential by applying a digital time stamp. ✪

Justin_Cooke: And then don't know that credential again. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Those are all the parts to this signature validity which I'll come on to soon. ✪

Justin_Cooke: And then we've got a number of um display oriented um features so allowing additional identifiers to be provided for the credential holder so for example a student ID. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Um some improvements in the way that notes and the documents are viewed in the viewer. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Um so we've got some other um other elements such as uh changes to the default display settings so that certain things are also like expanded rather than collapsed things like this. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Um so moving on to the latter parts of the list um the the other thing I guess worth mentioning at the bottom is that we're now permitting decimal values in some of the fields uh uh numeric in nature so things like durations and volume of learning and and and so on so previously this was only allowing integer values so now we provide uh features for decimal values as well. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Let's moving up moving on to the wallet part of the um infrastructure. ✪

Justin_Cooke: So 1 of the things that was disabled as part of the transition from XML to Json was the downloading of a credential. ✪

Justin_Cooke: No that's been enabled again in version 2.3 so the users can now download the Json credentials from their wallets to their file system if they need to. ✪

Justin_Cooke: And coming back to this whole um signature validity question. ✪

Justin_Cooke: we've also. ✪

Justin_Cooke: A mechanism by which the wallet will auto check all of the credentials um for expiry um well. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Credentials that are soon to expire basically so that um we can also extend. ✪

Justin_Cooke: The signatures by applying digital's time stamp so this I think applies to credentials that are going to expire within 3 months but this can be configured also. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Another thing that we've allowed uh from the issue of perspective is to configure multiple wallets. ✪

Justin_Cooke: To deliver the credentials to uh with 1 being a default wallet but also providing mechanism to um to send to either not that default wallet or multiple wallets. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Um and the last item on the list here is providing API access so this is mainly for implementers um the infrastructure to provide a mechanism to. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Use existing credential templates through an API by uploading or providing a spreadsheet Excel or CSV file which contains. ✪

Justin_Cooke: The uh recipient information. ✪

Justin_Cooke: To automate the whole credential creation signature and sending process. ✪

Justin_Cooke: And then some miscellaneous updates so we have a mechanism or feature in the uh credential Builder to allow the issuer to specify custom HTML templates to provide a different look and feel for the credentials. ✪

Justin_Cooke: As part of this um update to Jason a cheat sheet has been provided to allow or to provide guidance basically in moving from the the old XPath. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Mechanisms to to the new adjacent mechanisms. ✪

Justin_Cooke: 1 of the things that we discovered um regarding the signature and the ecls were that was that some European ecl providers. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Provide the type information for the seals that are giving out and this was causing some issues for us in the verification process whereas in fact if you check the the main libraries of DSs libraries for these seals they pass. ✪

Justin_Cooke: So we needed to relax this constraint to allow the type label to be left unknown. ✪

Justin_Cooke: And then we have an update to the Esco um classification or version if you like so this is the European skills classification. ✪

Justin_Cooke: We were on version 1.09 we've now moved to 1 dot 1 dot 2. ✪

Justin_Cooke: And finally on this list we have are moving some of the controlled list reference data to the European publish locations office. ✪

Justin_Cooke: And then in the future we'll be relying on this information when issuing credentials and verifying credentials to make sure that we. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Populate the credentials such as the schema information with the correct data. ✪

Justin_Cooke: And that's it for 2.3. ✪

Justin_Cooke: And then on the last slide was the little teaser um for EDC 2.4 which is also on its way. ✪

Justin_Cooke: This is mainly focused on technical upgrades there's been some quite significant um. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Rights to the Java platform the user interface framework uh spring and a number of other big things that we had to do um to provide a platform to move the developments forward in the future. ✪

Justin_Cooke: No that's being done as part of 2.4 1 of the additional features if you like uh that we managed to squeeze in there it's 2.4. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Was the a mechanism to opt out of creating a temporary wallet for users who don't have a wallet yet so we have this feature where. ✪

Justin_Cooke: When a credential is issued it's the um the holder doesn't have a wallet that exists already then we will put a temporary 1 which lasts for several months which then the the user then can claim and then link to their your password accounts accordingly. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Uh we have for gdpr reasons we have the mechanism to opt out of um. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Of this feature if needed from the issuing perspective. ✪

Justin_Cooke: And then in terms of timing yeah we expect 2.4 to be released um during the month of May this year. ✪

Justin_Cooke: And that's all I have to say on. ✪

Justin_Cooke: EDC 2.3 2.4. ✪

Justin_Cooke: That's a very good question um so I don't know if anyone can answer that it's on the call at the moment. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Yeah yeah sure yeah I mean this is all. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Okay so by default we have a wallet an online wallet which is hosted alongside um a system called europass. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Um so your past users um also basically have a wallet and online wallets in which they the credentials can be stored. ✪

Justin_Cooke: So that's the 1 that's hosted by the commission but there's also the open source version of EDC which um. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Which implementers can can install themselves deploy themselves and create their own instances of an online wallet. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Future we're we'll be looking at integrating with other types of wallets that will be uh part of other initiatives from the from the EU such as the EU EU di wallets. ✪

Justin_Cooke: Last thing that will be coming in the future. ✪

<eric_shepherd> Yes. It was ansered

Céline_Jambon: Uh perhaps I can start and then uh colleagues uh feel free to add so um a car is the European quality assurance register so it's a separate organization it was developed under the bolognia framework to look at uh quality assurance uh. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Or either institutions or programs in higher education now there are also starting to look as well at a micro credentials. ✪

Céline_Jambon: What do you uh have is a database with all the different records of accreditation and what we have in the DCS the possibility to link directly from um the car the reference to the uh record meaning that you can issue credentials in the regular way but you can also issue credentials in an accredited way meaning that we would also check the accreditation record and the match um between the issuer and uh the accreditation. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Um and I'm not an expert in accreditation. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Um but uh basically you have different uh quality assurance in the different member states and then you have this European level. ✪

Céline_Jambon: So it's um. ✪

<simone_ravaioli> This is what I am referring to - https://hub.ebsi.eu/get-started/build/tao

Céline_Jambon: It's not it's more about sharing information. ✪

Céline_Jambon: On the accreditation elements in the records. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Um because usually um the institutions go through the quality assurance in their own member states so they have a an authority that is in charge of the whole process. ✪

https://europa.eu/europass/elm-browser/documentation/rdf/ap/ams/documentation/ams-constraints.html ✪

<laura_paglione> What is the term that folks are using for the agency/ framework? Is it ECAR?

<simone_ravaioli> EQAR

<laura_paglione> Thx. Got it

Céline_Jambon: So in terms of uh adoptions we have so far around um 25,000 credentials that are stored in the europas wallets. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Uh meaning that uh credentials that uh people have kept in the your password so they may be more credentials that have been issued because we do not check the credentials themselves. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Terms of use cases we have quite a different variety of implementers so um we have some that are informal sector with for instance Luxembourg was 1 of the front runner with all their uh vocational education diplomas issued uh using both paper and the Europeans to credentials for learning format. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Um then we have over implementers so we had also the University of split in Croatia. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Um we have other member states that are looking at a bit larger scale implementation. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Jane has a major project called certain difficult where they are um looking to develop their own system but interoperable with the Europeans to credentials for learning. ✪

Céline_Jambon: So we are also um in contact and supporting those uh implementation use case Estonia is also looking for instance as a bit of a broader um digitalization of their learning credentials project. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Um we have also Malta uh looking at all their um secondary education diplomas to be issued using the system. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Then we have a non-formal education credentials there we have um 1 of our biggest um and most recent implementers is going to be um. ✪

Céline_Jambon: EIT so the European innovation technology um. ✪

Céline_Jambon: Organization for you know energy called in our energy so there they are upskilling adults in the field of uh everything related to is. ✪

Céline_Jambon: It will be um all of their uh training will lead to editions of such a credential uh we also have smaller scale um with Asos plus project also using the the system we have the aurasma student Network that has been uh issuing those credentials for um their non-formal training that they give within the context of the association. ✪

Céline_Jambon: So that gives a bit of uh broader picture um now in terms of how we engage uh we are also working on our own strategy and how we want also to keep pushing forward we also rely a lot on the national uh Europa centers that are the centers in the member states and also in the EU uh in the candidate and potential candidate and the EA countries. ✪

<sharon_leu> How have you been testing interoperability of credentials between implementers?

Céline_Jambon: Are on the ground they are in the member states and they know the direct stakeholders they can also uh relay information in national language so they also an important multiplier as well for the 2. ✪

Céline_Jambon: At least for me the question is not super clear on the type of interpretability we're talking about. ✪

<anthony_f._camilleri> We don't standardise transport protocols for credentials, and we don't do stuff like DIDs, so we only do checks on the formats of the credentials themselves.

<anthony_f._camilleri> So all we need for interop, is a valid JSON-LD file that verifies against our RDF-SHACL at this stage.

<anthony_f._camilleri> Short answer is no in a public environment - nothing like a plugfest up to this point. We do integration assistance on a bilateral basis with implementers via our support team.

Céline_Jambon: Well thank you Simone we'll keep that in mind and if we ever decide to pursue that route we'll get in touch thank you. ✪

<simone_ravaioli> Thank you colleagues from EDC !

<naomi> Thank you!

<céline_jambon> Thank you very much for having us. Our support team can be reached at: EMPL-ELM-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu

<sharon_leu> This is great work. We'll keep you all in the loop for upcoming plugfesting activities!

<eric_shepherd> Thank you. You are doing important work and we appreciate you sharing your achievements.