An e-Identity for lifelong learners
Together with Swiss universities, SWITCH is launching an innovative project for creating a personal digital identity for lifelong learners. This "e-Identity" is designed to support students in their networking with people and data and career planning – even after their university degree.
Who am I, what am I capable of?
It is precisely these questions that e-Identity will answer on as individually as possible: it offers lifelong learners a safe place to keep their certificates and documents as well as the appropriate tools for providing evidence of their competences.
Why is SWITCH committed to this topic?
For many students it is a basic need to build up their own profile in the form of a career portfolio. What they have been lacking to date is a secure environment which can be accessed outside of social networks and after they have finished their studies. With their own virtual learning space and an "e-portfolio", students would be able to look after all their individual documents that have so far been stored on third-party servers, their own hard disk or in their desk drawer and can easily get lost. SWITCH and the universities are thus dedicated to the development of an e-Identity, which is
a) valid lifelong, comparable and secure (forgery-proof),
b) internationally compatible and
c) expandable on a flexible basis, e.g. in the direction of job and expert searches, social networks and research
Continuous learning
Just because someone has completed their university studies this does not mean that they have now finished learning for good: Here a continuing-education course, there a stay abroad combined with a language certificate or new activities outside of work. The e-Identity will be able to reflect this, plus a great deal more. In the first phase of the project, the specific supranational deployment scenarios will be clarified and, among other things, how it can be implemented.