Education and Skills: ONEST
ELEVATOR PITCH
Problem
- Only 4.7% of India’s workforce possesses the necessary skills
- India will require 30 million digitally skilled professionals by 2026
- 50% of the current workforce must undergo upskilling in emerging sectors.
- Only 46% of graduates are deemed employable
- 12.6% Indians drop out of school due to affordability and accessibility
- The current skill upgrade options are in silos and not in touch with the actual skill demand
- The landscape is large, fragmented and heterogenous
Solution
- ONEST is an open and decentralized network underpinned of the Beckn Protocol
- Leverages the decentralized skilling and education protocol (DSEP) which is an education and skilling specifications of the Beckn Protocol
- Enables equitable opportunities for education, upskilling and jobs under the categories: learning experiences, financial aid, work opportunities, mentorship connects
- Fosters a fair and equitable network with platform agnostic interoperability
Big Wins
- Facilitates a democratic and informed approach
- Facilitates a ‘freedom of choice’ to end users from a surplus pool of providers of their choice as per their preferences
- Breaks the current siloed ecosystem
- Provides equitable education & skilling to enhance employability and sustainable livelihood
- Addresses the fragmentation and skill-gap challenges
- Brings the skill demand and supply together while removing any central intermediary’s influence over transactions
Implementation :
Milestones
- Community led initiative
- Incubated and led by the Ekstep Foundation
- ONDC is the network facilitator
- FIDE is the Protocol Partner and Protean is the Knowledge Partner
How it works
- ONEST architecture is based on Access, Trust and Ownership
- Utilizes DSEP protocols for discovery and equitable access to education, upskilling, jobs and financial aid
- Trust layer utilizes digitally verifiable credentials and electronic registries
- The verifiable credentials (VC) help students, professionals, and employers fast-track hiring and background checks with credibility
- Consumer-centered ecosystem where students, professionals, and organizations can store their VCs in their preferred digital wallet
- The digital wallet is powered by the existing consent and data exchange architecture under the data protection framework
Network Participants
- Provider Platform: A platform that can expand its reach that offers a wide range of service that include training, scholarships, jobs, and mentorship opportunities, Eg: LinkedIn
- Provider: A service provider that would like to integrate with an existing provider platform as one of the providers of training, scholarships, jobs, and mentorship opportunities. Eg: Universities, independent skilling and certification providers
- Seeker Platform: A consumer platform that is customer facing that enables its end users to explore the vast array of training, scholarships, jobs, and mentorship opportunities available within the network
- Seeker: A service that consumes the information made available by the ONEST network through any of the seeker platforms
- Network Service Provider: A system integrator that enables other organizations to join this network through your technology, business or onboarding service
NETWORK GOVERNANCE :
Governance
- ONEST is currently in a pilot phase, it will utilize the ONDC open network infrastructure and governance policies for seamless scaling after the pilot phase.
Next Steps
- ONEST will use ONDC infrastructure and governance
- Ekstep Foundation to bring both provider and seeker platforms and applications
Source: Preliminary research carried out by Cambridge University, JBS. Please note that use cases are evolving.
