DPI - ONEST: Improving Education and Skilling through Decentralization

Digital Public Infrastructure is revolutionizing the future of India through innovative solutions that are reshaping industries and sectors in the country. Funding within the DPI ecosystem could be funded by ONEST – Open Network for Education and Skilling Transformations. Building on the success of ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce), ONEST is designed to open up education, skill development, and employment in a similarly decentralized, interoperable manner.

Due to the dynamic nature of the current working force, the availability of education and necessary skills has become even more important. Learners are always lagging behind opportunities, and this results in students, job seekers, and educators getting annoyed because the resource is disjointed and not related. This is where ONEST comes in to fill these gaps and ensure that education and skilling opportunities are as connected and easy as e-commerce is today.

ONEST is an acronym for Open Network for Education and Skilling Transformations, the goal of which is to build a network that is not tied to any platform and that connects education seekers, providers, employers, and facilitators. In its essence, ONEST seeks to achieve an environment where people have equal opportunities when it comes to learning materials regardless of their status in society or the region they come from.

For instance, a student in a rural village can enroll in an AI course offered by a reputable university, get a scholarship, and even apply for an internship with a tech startup, all within the same network. And that is the promise of ONEST. It shifts from the current model of multiple LMSs that are currently in existence and function as separate entities, thus creating a challenge for learners and providers to connect.

In the same manner as ONDC disrupted e-commerce by removing middlemen between sellers and buyers, ONEST aims to disrupt education. It seeks to bring all the players in the education and skills ecosystem, including education providers, skilling platforms, learners, and employers, into a single, unified, and decentralized marketplace to facilitate transactions, discovery, and access to opportunities.

The Beckn protocol is at the core of ONEST’s technological stack. ONDC is built on the Beckn protocol, which is a framework that supports decentralized interactions between multiple applications. In the case of ONEST, this implies that there may be many education platform, scholarship awarding bodies, and employers in one network, and they can all run independently and communicate effectively without having to refer to some central control.

It is for this reason that through the Beckn protocol, platforms are able to remain separated, but the products they have to offer are easily accessible throughout the network. For learners, this means that they can quickly access several forms of learning materials and skill development courses, such as academic subjects like mathematics and science, and other professional courses like artificial intelligence, coding, and other vocation-related courses.

This is the kind of decentralization that really makes a difference. Instead of being confined to a single, centralized App, users now have access to a vast network of content and possibilities and can freely select the platforms, courses, and opportunities that they prefer. This is particularly so because ONEST has no single authority that determines what is available; it is the real sharing of knowledge.

ONEST provides an entire system where all parts of the education and job world are linked conveniently, efficiently, and accessible. The major categories that ONEST targets include.
Learning Experiences: Students and learners can also get a variety of educational materials, courses, and training from different providers. Whether it is conventional disciplines like physics and mathematics or an ultramodern course in artificial intelligence and other neural networks, learning has never been so easy as with ONEST.

Financial Support: Users are able to search for scholarships, grants, and financial assistance within the network. For instance, for a student in need of financial assistance for tuition fees or an organization seeking to sponsor deserving students, the process is made easier through ONEST.
Work Opportunities: It provides students with opportunities in internships, gig economy, and vacancies. Although securing a full-time job may take some time, ONEST offers opportunities for learners to acquire relevant skills and experience through internships and freelancing.
Expert Connect: ONEST also brings together mentors and learners. Volunteers, tutors, or advisers from different fields can be engaged and get involved in volunteering, tutoring, or sharing their professional opinion through the network.

Such a structure enables a more rapid expansion of the business and its scalability. Education platforms previously had a problem with popularization and can now expand their reach at a fast pace. Since the network is interoperable and open, the content providers are in a position to extend their content to other users without necessarily incurring high marketing or operational costs.

Another major strength of ONEST is that the platform has the potential to dismantle the silos that are evident in the education and skilling segments today. Today, most educational systems work in parallel to each other. A student may be required to use a different platform for taking online classes, applying for internships, and searching for scholarships. This is a fragmented way of learning that is not only time-consuming but also discouraging to many learners.
This reality led to the development of the ONEST system, which will gather all the required resources in one place. Whether it is selecting the right course, applying for a scholarship, or even getting an internship, ONEST enables these transactions to happen within one integrated platform. This not only facilitates things for learners but also fosters integration between various ed-tech platforms and skilling solutions.

For instance, a coding platform may partner with a skilling provider that also provides job connections, making the transition from learning to the workplace very easy. In the same manner, universities that provide online classes can come to an agreement with the scholarship companies and award the scholarship through the ONEST connection.

The network is open, and anyone can participate – education providers, skilling platforms, employers, or financial institutions that provide scholarships. ONEST is trying to create an environment in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts by encouraging collaboration.

This means the network is open, and participants can create opportunities together with others. For example, several networked platforms can collaborate to provide packaged courses, grants, and training. This makes it possible for the learners to get a broader experience and access to a number of resources they might not access when working singly.

ONEST relies on the active participation of stakeholders who are willing to cooperate rather than compete. Just like ONDC that attracted a large number of participants once the value of the network was realized, a similar trend will be observed with ONEST, where more platforms, institutions, and employers will join this open network.

Like any other new idea, ONEST has its own set of challenges which are as follows. The education and skilling sectors are very mature and some of the larger players might take time before they shift to the open network. But ONEST’s team believes that once people understand the advantages that the network offers, even the major players will be happy to join in.

One of the challenges is the ability to make users understand the importance of having a decentralized network. A lot of people still have a traditional view of the world – a single platform manages content and access to opportunities. Changing the attitudes of learners and providers towards this new model of education will not be easy; however, the benefits, including greater access, lower costs, and faster growth, are sure to make it a worthy venture.

Thus, ONEST will open a vast opportunity for the small players to invest in the education and skilling sector. They extend their reach to a much larger audience as part of the network and this is cheaper than marketing and expansion. In this case, learners benefit from the ONEST as it provides them with high accessibility to education and employment opportunities irrespective of their social statuses.

ONEST has the potential to be massive. With more players coming to the network as a result of the popularity of the system, more opportunities shall be available for learners. Whether it is education, scholarships, or employment, ONEST aims to be a one-stop solution to the numerous problems that learners and job seekers encounter in the modern world.

With the goal of positively impacting the lives of millions of students, professionals, and organizations, ONEST is poised to revolutionize education. Through leveraging decentralization capabilities, ONEST is creating the path for a more open, inclusive, and sustainable future for education and skills acquisition.

In conclusion, ONEST is not a platform among other platforms but a whole ecosystem for disrupting and democratizing the education market. As a decentralized network that links learners, educators, employers, and financial institutions, ONEST is positioned to disrupt the current state of education and skill development in the digital world. In line with India’s broader Digital Public Infrastructure, ONEST will have a significant role in defining the direction of learning and employment in India and beyond.