Our credentials are not a private taxonomy.
Every competency the Institute certifies is mapped to the external frameworks the field converged on — and that alignment is written into the signed credential itself, so a wallet, a verifier, or an employer's skills system reads it straight off the badge. This is what makes a skill earned here mean the same thing everywhere else.
Three levels, one shared progression.
Our competency tiers are not idiosyncratic — they correspond one-to-one with the progressions the major frameworks already use. Earn a tier here and its meaning is legible against UNESCO's and SACA's ladders.
| Institute tier | UNESCO AI (students) | SACA (Industry 4.0) |
|---|---|---|
| I Foundational | Understand | Associate |
| II Proficient | Apply | Specialist |
| III Advanced | Create | Professional |
Seven competencies, mapped.
Each mapping is deliberately conservative — grounded in what the courses in that competency actually teach, not aspirational. Every entry is a live link into the external framework.
Parametric Design
- WorldSkills Occupational StandardsCAD / Mechanical Engineering Design
- AI4K12 — Five Big Ideas in AIBig Idea 2 — Representation & Reasoning
- UNESCO AI Competency Framework for StudentsAI techniques and applications · Understand → Create
- Smart Automation Certification Alliance (SACA)Industry 4.0 · Associate → Professional
Additive Manufacturing
- WorldSkills Occupational StandardsAdditive Manufacturing
- NIMS — Additive Manufacturing CredentialsAdditive Manufacturing Designer / Operator
- UNESCO AI Competency Framework for StudentsAI techniques and applications · Understand → Create
- Smart Automation Certification Alliance (SACA)Industry 4.0 · Associate → Professional
Embedded & Silicon
- WorldSkills Occupational StandardsMechatronics
- AI4K12 — Five Big Ideas in AIBig Idea 1 — Perception (sensing)
- CSTA 2026 PK-12 Computer Science StandardsHS Specialty — Physical Computing
- OECD / European Commission AI Literacy Framework (AILit)Engage with AI
- UNESCO AI Competency Framework for StudentsAI techniques and applications · Understand → Create
- Smart Automation Certification Alliance (SACA)Industry 4.0 · Associate → Professional
Robot Learning
- AI4K12 — Five Big Ideas in AIBig Idea 3 — Learning
- WorldSkills Occupational StandardsAutonomous / Mobile Robotics
- CSTA 2026 PK-12 Computer Science StandardsHS Specialty — Artificial Intelligence
- OECD / European Commission AI Literacy Framework (AILit)Create with AI
- UNESCO AI Competency Framework for StudentsAI techniques and applications · Understand → Create
Vision-Language-Action
- AI4K12 — Five Big Ideas in AIBig Idea 1 — Perception
- AI4K12 — Five Big Ideas in AIBig Idea 4 — Natural Interaction
- CSTA 2026 PK-12 Computer Science StandardsHS Specialty — Artificial Intelligence
- OECD / European Commission AI Literacy Framework (AILit)Create with AI
- UNESCO AI Competency Framework for StudentsAI techniques and applications · Understand → Create
Embodied Systems
- WorldSkills Occupational StandardsRobot Systems Integration
- AI4K12 — Five Big Ideas in AIBig Idea 4 — Natural Interaction
- CSTA 2026 PK-12 Computer Science StandardsHS Specialty — Physical Computing
- OECD / European Commission AI Literacy Framework (AILit)Shape AI (deploying AI in the world)
- UNESCO AI Competency Framework for StudentsAI system design · Understand → Create
- Smart Automation Certification Alliance (SACA)Industry 4.0 · Associate → Professional
Intelligence Foundations
- AI4K12 — Five Big Ideas in AIBig Idea 2 — Representation & Reasoning
- AI4K12 — Five Big Ideas in AIBig Idea 5 — Societal Impact
- CSTA 2026 PK-12 Computer Science StandardsHS Specialty — Artificial Intelligence
- OECD / European Commission AI Literacy Framework (AILit)Engage with AI
- UNESCO AI Competency Framework for StudentsHuman-centred mindset & ethics of AI · Understand → Create
Where the field converged.
The reference frameworks and standards bodies our credentials point at.
UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Students ↗
The international reference (Sept 2024): competencies across four aspects, each progressing Understand → Apply → Create.
OECD / European Commission AI Literacy Framework (AILit) ↗
The AILit framework, final June 2026: 19 competences across four domains — Engage with AI, Create with AI, Manage AI, Shape AI. The basis for the PISA 2029 AI-literacy assessment.
CSTA 2026 PK-12 Computer Science Standards ↗
The July 2026 CSTA standards: five concepts, four practices, and high-school specialties — including Physical Computing (PHY) and Artificial Intelligence (AIN).
AI4K12 — Five Big Ideas in AI ↗
The AAAI + CSTA grade-band framework: Perception, Representation & Reasoning, Learning, Natural Interaction, Societal Impact.
WorldSkills Occupational Standards ↗
Absolute occupational standards scored at global competitions — Additive Manufacturing, Mechatronics, Mobile Robotics, Robot Systems Integration.
Smart Automation Certification Alliance (SACA) ↗
Industry-4.0 / connected-systems credentials, stacked Associate → Specialist → Professional.
NIMS — Additive Manufacturing Credentials ↗
US metalworking/AM standards body: performance-validated Additive Manufacturing Designer and Operator credentials.
1EdTech CASE (Competencies & Academic Standards Exchange) ↗
The machine-readable exchange format so a competency means the same thing across systems — the format our framework export uses.
Machine-readable, end to end.
The crosswalk above is not marketing copy bolted on afterward — it is the same data that is signed into every credential we issue and published as a framework other systems can align to.
OB 3.0 alignment
Each competency credential is an Open Badges 3.0 / W3C Verifiable Credential whose achievement carries an alignment array — the exact framework, code, name, and URL — signed with our Ed25519 key. A verifier reads the standards mapping without trusting us.
A CASE-shaped export
Our whole ladder is published as a machine-readable framework (1EdTech CASE vocabulary — CFDocument + CFItems) so other systems can align to us the way we align to them.
did:web + offline check
Our public signing key is published at did:web:physicalai-bmi.org. Any wallet or verifier validates a credential — and its alignment — offline, with no call back to us.
Honest scope: mappings are conservative and self-asserted — a credential's alignment is our documented claim, not a third-party accreditation. The CASE export uses the CASE vocabulary but is not yet run through the 1EdTech conformance suite. The VC-JWT is EdDSA (valid W3C VC); some OB3-specific validators historically tested only RS256 — a one-line fallback exists if a target validator requires it.