What are Credentials and Digital Credentials?
When you complete a degree or course, you wish to get recognized or demonstrate your competency for the same. So how does one do that?
A credential is a document that is filled with the identity of the recipient and qualification issued and also acts as evidence to prove the recipient’s competency in the acquired skill.
Examples of credential may include, academic qualifications, academic degrees, diploma certificates. Also identity documents like birth certificates, voters cards, badges, powers of attorney and so on.
How does one gain a credential?
Academic and professional credential are awarded or achieved when an individual completes the degree, course or project. These credentials are only issued when the individual successfully completes the course meets all the criteria set by the academy or educational institution.
Other credential such as identification documents, security clearances, or power of attorney are issued and gained legally post rigorous verification of the individual identity.
Where are these credentials listed?
Credential received for academics like academic certification, academic diploma and academic degrees are usually displayed on the individual portfolio or resume to prove the competency of their achievement.
Credential like identification documents, security clearances are listed for verification or authentication of the individual identity or legitimacy.
What are Digital Credentials?
Much like traditional credentials issued to prove the individual competency in the qualification or skill achieved, Digital Credentials are issued and gained through virtual digital credential platforms and also act as evidence to prove the individual achievement of a skill, acknowledgement of talent, or completion of a degree, course and qualification.
Digital credentials can be issued as a digital certificate or digital badges or both. It come with blockchain technology and are integrated with automation. Certificates and digital badges can be encrypted with a digital key to secure the contents of the digital document.
Digital credential is secured with bank-level security avoiding any data manipulation and cyber threats. Digital credential can be easily shared on all digital platforms, and can also be displayed on a portfolio and resume for career development. They are easy to verify, share and view.
In Conclusion:
Credentials are a piece of documents that acts as evidence to prove the persons’ competency in the skills acquired. In today’s world, these paper-based credentials are now replaced by Digital credential. Digital credential act similarly to what credentials were used for but the significant difference between both would be traditional credential is paper-based and digital credential are virtual.