Project Description

Soft skills — things like teamwork, communication, and problem-solving — matter enormously to employers. But most education systems still don’t have a good way to recognise them. DISCO SMS (Digitally Signed Credentials – Smart Motivation with Stackability) sets out to fix that.

Building on the DISCO VET project, this Erasmus+ partnership develops a practical training course for teachers and trainers in vocational education. It shows them how to use digital open badges to recognise soft skills, motivate learners through gamification, and build stackable credentials that travel across institutions and borders.The 30-hour online course covers three modules: using open badges for motivation through gamification; recognising soft skills; and interoperability, stackability, and verifier roles. All materials are available in six languages. The project runs from November 2024 to October 2026, with six partners from six European countries.

KIC role

We lead quality assurance for the project, drawing on our expertise in educational We lead quality assurance for the project, drawing on our expertise in educational standards and digital credentials to ensure all outputs meet the highest benchmarks. We work closely with lead developer Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) to co-lead testing and validation of the upgraded DIScoPLAYER portal — the open badge displayer platform at the heart of the project.

We also contribute to course content on stackability and micro-credentials, building directly on our ongoing work as external consultant to the European Commission on Europass digital credentials and the European Learning Model.

Throughout the project, we manage the external certification process with 1EdTech, the international standards body responsible for the Open Badge 2.1 standard. Our experience navigating European digital credential frameworks makes us well placed to lead this work.

We also support dissemination and communication across the partnership, translating project results into accessible outputs for educators, policymakers, and the wider open badge community — a role we’ve carried out across around 25 Erasmus and Erasmus+ projects.DISCO SMS builds directly on our involvement in the predecessor DISCO VET project, where our team developed deep familiarity with the platform and the partnership.