A non-profit institution

Building Bharat's
Skill Infrastructure

Open Skill Foundation is a non-profit institution building open infrastructure, standards, research and innovation systems for India's evolving workforce economy.

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The Challenge

Millions of skilled workers. Fragmented trust systems.

India's workforce economy operates inside a credential fog, paper-based certificates, siloed registries, and fragmented verification. Capability exists, but it is invisible at the moment of opportunity.

500M+

Workforce participants in India by 2030

₹10,000Cr+

Estimated annual loss from credential fog

9M+

New skill credentials issued every year

Credential Fog

Workers carry credentials no one can verify. Employers cannot trust what they cannot read.

Paper-based Systems

Certificates remain physical, easily lost, hard to share, and impossible to verify at internet scale.

Invisible Capability

Skills earned on the job, in the field, and through informal pathways have no public infrastructure.

The Gap

Skilled people here. Opportunities there. No bridge between them.

Capability and demand often exist in the same region, sometimes in neighbouring districts, yet they never meet. There is no shared, trusted layer where local skill becomes visible to local opportunity.

Young professional in Vidisha working on a laptop

Vidisha, MP

The Candidate

Skilled in Digital Marketing

"I've run campaigns for two years. I have no idea anyone nearby is hiring."

Digital Marketing

Bhopal, MP

The Employer

Hiring for Digital Marketing

"We've been searching for weeks. We can't find trusted talent close by."

Sehore, MP

The Candidate

Trained Solar Installer

"I've installed dozens of rooftops. No one knows my work outside my village."

Solar Panel Installation

Indore, MP

The Employer

Hiring Solar Installers

"Projects are stuck. We can't verify who is actually trained nearby."

Raisen, MP

The Candidate

Experienced Commercial Driver

"Twelve years on the road, no record an employer can trust at a glance."

Auto / Commercial Driving

Bhopal, MP

The Employer

Hiring Fleet Drivers

"We need verified drivers fast. The local talent is invisible to us."

How OSF bridges this

Discoverable Identity

Skill Passport makes nearby capability visible at the moment of opportunity.

Trusted Verification

Employers verify skills instantly, no paper, no doubt, no delay.

Local Mobility

Skill Setu connects demand and supply within the same region.

See how the infrastructure closes the gap

What We Build

Initiatives across the workforce stack

All initiatives

Skill Passport

Portable and verifiable skill identity for every worker.

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Skill Certs

Infrastructure for issuing trusted, tamper-evident credentials.

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Skill Verifier

Instant, consent-led verification of workforce credentials.

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Open Skill Protocol

Open interoperability standards for the skill ecosystem.

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Skill Chain

Distributed trust infrastructure for credential integrity.

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Skill Shala

Learning and workforce capability-building ecosystem.

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Skill Yatra

Bharat-wide workforce outreach and adoption initiative.

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National Skill Olympiad

Assessment and recognition platform for skilled talent.

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Skill Centers of Excellence

Regional innovation and workforce transformation hubs.

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Education & Workforce Enablement

Capability building as public infrastructure

Skill Shala anchors a national capability-building ecosystem, courses, certifications, workshops and enablement programs for institutions, enterprises and government.

Courses

Foundational and advanced programs across emerging workforce domains.

Workshops

In-person and remote sessions for practitioners and policy teams.

Certifications

Outcome-based certifications anchored to open skill standards.

Enterprise Enablement

Custom workforce capability programs for industry.

Government Enablement

Capacity building for ministries, departments and skill missions.

Institutional Capacity

Train-the-trainer and program design for academic partners.

Research & Knowledge Infrastructure

The Open Skill Research Network

An institutional research network producing rigorous, public-interest scholarship on workforce systems, credential trust, and digital public infrastructure for skills.

Explore the network

Workforce Intelligence

Labour Mobility

Future of Work

Credential Trust

DPI Governance

Workforce Transformation

Skill Intelligence Reports