A certificate as a PDF or a piece of paper really proves only one thing: that someone has a file. With a word processor or, ironically, with AI, anyone can produce a convincing fake in five minutes. For HR and employers that is a real problem: how do you know a certificate is genuine, current, and was actually issued to this person?
There are two related solutions: the Open Badges standard for digital credentials, and the public verification page. This article explains both, and shows you how to check any certificate someone puts in front of you.
What are Open Badges?
Open Badges is an open, international standard for digital credentials. It was originally started by the Mozilla Foundation and is now maintained by 1EdTech (formerly IMS Global), a non-profit standards body for education. “Open” here means: not owned by a single company, free to implement, and portable between platforms.
An Open Badge is more than an image. Structured data is attached to or embedded in the badge:
- Who received the badge (the recipient)
- Who issued it (the issuer, with name and web address)
- What it stands for: which skills or learning outcomes, and which criteria had to be met to earn it
- When it was issued, and optionally when it expires
Because this is a standard, you can take such a badge with you: to a badge wallet, to LinkedIn, or to another platform. You do not depend on the issuer to be able to show what you achieved. That is the big difference with a certificate that only exists as a standalone file.
How does a public verification page work?
Alongside the badge itself, serious issuers use a public verification page. The idea is simple: every issued certificate has its own unique page on the issuer’s website, reachable via a link, a certificate number or a QR code printed on the certificate.
That page shows what the issuer itself has on record: the name of the certificate holder, the course or exam completed, and the date. Anyone who wants to check the certificate therefore does not look at the document the candidate supplies, but goes straight to the source. A forged PDF no longer helps: the verification page does not exist, or shows different details than the document claims.
The core in one sentence: never trust the document, trust the source. A genuinely verifiable certificate points to a page at the issuer where anyone can check the details, without logging in and without paying.
Why this matters for HR
For HR and managers, verifiability solves three concrete problems:
- Authenticity in recruitment. A candidate who lists an AI certificate on their CV can back it up in seconds with a verification link. No link or page available? That tells you something too.
- Evidence that lives outside your own administration. If you keep records of AI training, for instance with article 4 of the AI Act in mind, verifiable certificates give you evidence that does not only exist in your own spreadsheet. How to set up such records is covered in Recording AI literacy.
- Currency. A verification page can show an issue date and possibly an expiry date. In a field that changes as fast as AI, the question “when was this earned?” matters at least as much as “was this earned?”.
To be fair: a verifiable certificate proves that someone completed a course or exam with a particular issuer, on a particular date. It does not automatically prove the course was any good or that the knowledge stuck. So always look at what was tested; with a good issuer, that is right there on the verification page or in the badge criteria.
How to check a certificate yourself
Handed a certificate, from whichever provider? Run through this list:
- Find the verification link, number or QR code. Nothing on the certificate that lets you check it independently? That is a weakness in itself.
- Go to the issuer’s website yourself. Type the address or look the organisation up, rather than blindly clicking a link in a document you were sent. That way you know you are looking at the real site.
- Compare the details. Do the name, course and date on the verification page match what the document says? Any mismatch is a red flag.
- Check the date. How old is the certificate, and does the issuer say anything about validity periods or refreshers?
- Assess the issuer. Is it clear who is behind it, what the course covers and how it is tested? An issuer that is vague about this makes the certificate worth less.
This takes two minutes at most and filters out virtually all fake certificates. Make it a standard step in recruitment, just like calling a reference.
What does this mean for your own certificates?
Do you issue internal certificates yourself, or are you choosing a training provider for your team? Then ask: will an outsider be able to verify this later? Certificates with a public verification page, and where possible following the Open Badges standard, are portable for the recipient and checkable for you as an employer. Paper and standalone PDFs are neither.
At AI Skill Pass, everyone who passes the exam receives a certificate with its own public verification page, so an employer or client can always check it independently. Curious what that looks like? Have a look at the AI literacy course, or start with the free module. Teams wanting to certify several employees will find more on the for employers page.