- 2020Design
- 2021Pilot
- 2022Pilot
- 2023Pilot
- 2024Pilot
Background
Within Europe, a growing number of people need to update and improve their knowledge, skills and competences to fill the gap between their formal education and training and the needs of a fast-changing society and labour market. New ways of confirming knowledge, skills and competences are a response to the challenges of the modern world; it requires us constantly to develop and expand our skills, which can then be confirmed in a reliable and official way. A solution that is gaining increasing importance is micro-credentials that could help certify the outcomes of small, tailored learning experiences. In the face of the increasingly clear dominance of new technologies, the functioning of micro-credentials in the digital space becomes grows in importance. The Educational Research Institute is working on a project aimed at popularising digital micro-credentials in Poland.
Digital badges have been created to enable micro-credentials to meet all the important challenges of modern times, not only to certify specific skills or achievements, but also to take an electronic form. One of the world's most recognised and widely used standards for issuing them is Open Badges. The first Polish application, Odznaka+, is to be created using this standard.
Objectives
The main objectives of this initiative are:
- improving and modernising the system of credentials for learners and people who improve their skills, competences and qualifications;
- implementing the idea of micro-credentials;
- supporting participation in lifelong learning and motivating to confirm achievements.
Description
A tool for issuing and collecting digital credentials, the Odznaka+ (Badge+) application, was created in 2021 as part of the project. Its purpose is the inclusion of innovative and socially needed qualifications in the integrated qualifications system (IQS), as well as reducing barriers to the development of IQS by providing support to its national and regional stakeholders'. It was created by the Educational Research Institute and commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Science. The application allows institutions to create digital badges in the Open Badges standard and issue them to their clients, pupils, students, employees and contractors. It allows individuals to collect and store these badges and their equivalent PDF certificates, as well as to share them, for example, in social media. Thanks to the application, users can digitally confirm various types of achievements (obtaining qualifications, participating in an educational or sports event, obtaining single or entire sets of learning outcomes), skills or competences.
The project's main goal is to design, pilot and make available to the public an innovative application to support and motivate different groups of people to participate in lifelong learning, by providing them with a tool that can be used to issue and collect micro-credentials. The implementation of micro-credential systems is aligned with the proposal for a Council recommendation of 22 June 2022...
A tool for issuing and collecting digital credentials, the Odznaka+ (Badge+) application, was created in 2021 as part of the project. Its purpose is the inclusion of innovative and socially needed qualifications in the integrated qualifications system (IQS), as well as reducing barriers to the development of IQS by providing support to its national and regional stakeholders'. It was created by the Educational Research Institute and commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Science. The application allows institutions to create digital badges in the Open Badges standard and issue them to their clients, pupils, students, employees and contractors. It allows individuals to collect and store these badges and their equivalent PDF certificates, as well as to share them, for example, in social media. Thanks to the application, users can digitally confirm various types of achievements (obtaining qualifications, participating in an educational or sports event, obtaining single or entire sets of learning outcomes), skills or competences.
The project's main goal is to design, pilot and make available to the public an innovative application to support and motivate different groups of people to participate in lifelong learning, by providing them with a tool that can be used to issue and collect micro-credentials. The implementation of micro-credential systems is aligned with the proposal for a Council recommendation of 22 June 2022 on a European approach to micro-credentials for lifelong learning and employability.
The first phase of the project included qualitative research and analysis of current initiatives and applications used for issuing digital credentials. The concept of the application was created.
In 2021, development (programming) work began and a test version of the application was created.
A pilot phase was launched in January 2022, to continue in 2023, during which selected entities started using the application Odznaka+. In this phase, the application was used by different institutions and organisations representing formal and non-formal education and operating in the field of informal learning: high schools, universities, certifying institutions, course and training providers, sports unions and clubs, private entities, non-governmental organisations. The project team also supported pilot participants through consultations, workshops and information and instruction materials. The application was developed based on feedback from pilot participants who issued over 4 000 digital badges.
Application tests were also carried out.
The Odznaka+ application's piloting continued in 2023. The IBE improved it based on feedback from pilot participants.
In October, the Educational Research Institute launched a new project: 'Microcredentials—piloting a new solution to support lifelong learning.' The overarching goal is to test the usefulness of micro-certifications for developing skills in line with the idea of lifelong learning.
As part of this project, the IBE also intends to develop a digital process for issuing and collecting microcredentials using the Odznaka+ application.
An analysis of the determinants of digital microcredentials using the Odznaka+ tool for the ICT industry was conducted in 2023. IBE began work on the first standards for describing microcredentials, to be tested in this pilot. At the same time, programming work was carried out to prepare an application to apply the standards in these microcredentials area. The first entities in the ICT area were selected and piloted them using the Odznaka+ application. A strategy for the dissemination of microcredentials was developed.
Since the project began, about 13 000 badges have been issued. 32 entities participated in the first pilot phase of the application, which ended in 2023.
The application continued in the pilot phase. Functional tests were carried out, and UX solutions were adapted, taking into account users' experiences and expectations. The application was continuously improved, with the gradual and controlled inclusion of subsequent software functionalities and their systematic correction.
Bodies responsible
- Ministry of Education and Science (from 2021 until 2024)
- Ministry of National Education
- Educational Research Institute (IBE)
Target groups
Learners
- Learners in upper secondary, including apprentices
Entities providing VET
- VET providers (all kinds)
Thematic categories
Transparency and portability of VET skills and qualifications
European principles and tools, such as EQF, ESCO, ECTS, Europass and ECVET, provide a strong basis for transparency and portability of national and sectoral qualifications across Europe, including the issuing of digital diplomas and certificates.
This thematic category looks at how individuals are supported in transferring, accumulating, and validating skills and competences acquired in formal, non-formal and informal settings – including learning on the job – and in having their learning recognised towards a qualification at any point of their lives. This is only possible if qualifications are transparent and comparable and are part of comprehensive national qualifications frameworks. Availability of qualifications smaller than full and acquirable in shorter periods of time is necessary; some countries have recently worked on developing partial qualifications, microcredentials, etc.
This thematic sub-category refers to validation mechanisms allowing individuals to accumulate, transfer, and recognise learning outcomes acquired non-formally and informally, including on-the-job learning, or in another formal system. In case they are not automatically recognised, a learner can have these learning outcomes validated and recognised through a particular process with a view to obtaining a partial or full qualification. This thematic sub-category covers such provisions and mechanisms.
European priorities in VET
VET Recommendation
- Flexibility and progression opportunities at the core of VET
Osnabrück Declaration
- Establishing a new lifelong learning culture - relevance of continuing VET and digitalisation
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Badge+ application (Odznaka+): Poland. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2024 update) [Online tool].
https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/45048