The skill development, lifelong learning, and employment landscape is a complex ecosystem fraught with challenges such as information asymmetry, high trust verification costs, and lack of discoverability. To address these issues, a unifying framework is essential. This article explores the concept of a public digital infrastructure that leverages a common protocol standard known as DSEP (Decentralized Skilling and Education Protocol) to offer services across various sectors like education, skilling, jobs, internships, training, courses, scholarships, and grants.
The Beckn Protocol serves as a foundational layer for this digital infrastructure. It is an open protocol that allows businesses across any industry to be discovered and engaged by any Beckn-enabled application. The protocol is a collection of open specifications consisting of APIs, message formats, network design, and reference architectures. It enables server-to-server communication, allowing consumer-facing platforms to discover and transact with any business with minimal implementation overhead. The protocol decouples the demand and supply sides, enabling services to be available on any online consumer interface that has mainstream adoption in a city (source).
DSEP is an adaptation of Beckn Protocol tailored for the education, skilling, jobs, sectors. It provides a set of configurable, extendable, modular open-source digital building blocks. Platforms offering services in education, skilling, jobs, internships, training, courses, scholarships, and grants can implement DSEP to ensure seamless discovery of opportunities and trust in transactions.
- Discovery: Discovery, browsing of catalogs containing jobs, interships, trainings, courses, mentors, tutors, coaches, scholarships, and grants offered by various organizations and institutions.
- Ordering: Application for jobs, internships, scholarships,grants, and admissions into training programs. Furthermore, it can also include purchasing an online courses, or booking a session with a mentor.
- Fulfillment: Manages post-order activities like tracking and status updates during the fulfillment of any of the activities mentioned above
- Post-Fulfillment: Handles activities like rating, feedback, support, and issuing of verifiable credentials.
One of the most transformative aspects of the Beckn Protocol and DSEP is the ability to transport verifiable credentials securely. This feature is particularly crucial in sectors like education, skilling, and employment, where the verification of qualifications, skills, and experiences is paramount. By embedding these credentials within the protocol, parties can instantly verify the authenticity of the information, thereby greatly enhancing the trust and reliability of transactions.
- Instant Verification: No need for lengthy background checks or third-party verification services.
- Data Integrity: Ensures that the credentials have not been tampered with, maintaining the integrity of the data.
- User Privacy: Secure, encrypted interactions protect user data while still enabling verification.
- Cross-Platform Portability: Credentials can be used across multiple platforms that implement the Beckn Protocol and DSEP, making it easier for users to switch services.
- Reduced Information Asymmetry: A common protocol allows for standardized information sharing, reducing gaps in knowledge and expectations.
- Cost-Effective Trust Verification: The protocol's inherent security features minimize the cost of trust verification.
- Enhanced Discoverability: The infrastructure allows for the seamless discovery of opportunities across multiple platforms.
- Portability: Users can easily switch between different service providers without losing their data or trust credentials.
The adoption of a public digital infrastructure based on DSEP can revolutionize the skill development and employment landscape. It offers a scalable, secure, and efficient way to connect various stakeholders in the ecosystem, thereby enabling a frictionless exchange for skill development, deployment, and associated supply-chain services. By fostering innovation and collaboration, this infrastructure holds the promise of transforming challenges into opportunities for millions.
By leveraging DSEP, we can create a more equitable, efficient, and effective ecosystem for skill development, job availability, and lifelong learning. The added capability of transporting verifiable credentials significantly elevates the level of trust and reliability in this digital infrastructure.