About

European Centre for Vocational Certification (ECVC) develops EU-aligned vocational certifications and stackable micro-credentials that help individuals, employers, education providers, and institutions validate job-ready competences in high-demand professional domains. ECVC focuses on credible, competence-based assessment systems aligned with European policy priorities, EQF, ESCO, skills recognition practices, and quality-assurance principles inspired by international certification standards such as ISO 17024. ECVC combines expertise in certification governance, micro-credential design, digital credentialing, professional development, EU project implementation, and stakeholder engagement. Its mission is to make skills visible, verifiable, and transferable across sectors and countries, supporting lifelong learning, upskilling, reskilling, and workforce readiness. ECVC works with training providers, universities, employers, public bodies, and EU-funded consortia to transform learning outcomes, training programmes, and project results into defensible certification pathways with real labour-market value.

Solution & Product

ECVC provides two complementary solutions. First, it develops and delivers its own catalogue of vocational certifications and modular micro-credentials in EU-relevant domains such as project management, sustainability, digital transformation, compliance, data protection, ESG, AI policy, quality assurance, health and safety, and professional skills development. Second, it offers end-to-end support to organisations that want to create, validate, or upgrade their own certification schemes. Its services cover the full certification lifecycle: competence mapping, occupational and skills profiling, blueprint development, learning outcome definition, assessment design, development and maintenance of validated assessment item banks for certification exams, exam delivery support, quality assurance, governance models, certification rules, digital badge issuance, recertification pathways, and continuous scheme maintenance. ECVC also supports EU-funded projects by converting project outputs, curricula, training materials, and capacity-building results into structured micro-credentials or certification-ready frameworks, increasing the sustainability and exploitation potential of project results beyond the project lifetime.

Innovation & Scalability

ECVC differentiates itself through a repeatable “certification scheme factory” model that allows new micro-credentials and professional certification schemes to be developed efficiently, consistently, and in alignment with EU policy and labour-market needs. Instead of treating each certification as a one-off product, ECVC applies reusable methodologies for competence mapping, assessment design, quality assurance, governance, digital credentialing, and recertification. This model is highly scalable because it can be replicated across sectors, countries, languages, and training ecosystems. Digital-first delivery, modular assessment frameworks, verifiable credentials, reusable templates, and partner-based distribution through training providers, universities, employers, EU consortia, and certification agents enable rapid expansion. The micro-credential format allows learners to build competence step by step, while organisations can adopt flexible, stackable pathways that fit EU programme deliverables, institutional training needs, and workforce transformation priorities. ECVC’s innovation lies in combining EU-policy alignment, certification governance, digital credentialing, and practical implementation capacity into a scalable professional skills-recognition infrastructure.

Traction & achievements

ECVC has already developed its certification architecture and operating model, including methodologies for competence blueprints, assessment design, quality assurance, governance, digital credentialing, recertification, and scheme maintenance. It has also structured initial domain roadmaps and prepared processes for learner onboarding, partner cooperation, assessment development, and certification delivery. ECVC builds on hands-on experience from EU-funded initiatives related to micro-credentials, skills recognition, sustainable project management, and professional development. These include SPM² – Sustainable Project Management through PM², an Erasmus+ KA220-HED project focused on sustainable project management education and micro-credential frameworks, and SMART Researchers, a Horizon Europe project focused on strategic micro-credentialing and skills recognition for early-stage researchers. These projects strengthen ECVC’s experience in EU-aligned skills frameworks, competence validation, micro-credential design, career development, stakeholder consultation, and sustainable exploitation of educational results. ECVC has also initiated outreach to training providers, employers, universities, and EU project stakeholders for pilot collaborations and custom certification schemes.

Team & Why Us

ECVC is supported by a multidisciplinary team with expertise in micro-credentials, certification governance, EU project management, digital credentialing, training, and stakeholder engagement. Jekaterina Makusina, COO, leads operations, micro-credential coordination, partnerships, and expert engagement. Charalambos Konstantopoulos brings 15+ years of experience in events, workshops, dissemination, and community engagement. Dr. Christiana Genethliou contributes project management, proposal writing, consortium building, EU project design, and partner coordination. Alexia Voutsina supports training development, trainer coordination, EU project reporting, quality assurance, and compliance. Christos Tsagkas, CTO, leads digital systems and certification delivery infrastructure. Dk Nurul Asykin Binti Pg Shahadan contributes digital credentials architecture and scalable platform design. Vasiliki Kioufti supports client coordination, logistics, documentation, and communication with learners, trainers, and partners. ECVC’s growth strategy is to launch flagship micro-credentials, validate them with training partners and employers, scale through VET providers and universities, and embed certification packages in Erasmus+, Horizon Europe, skills, and innovation projects. The catalogue will expand into GDPR, AI policy, ESG/CSRD, H&S, procurement, compliance, sustainability, and project management, with recurring revenue from recertification, CPD, renewals, and scheme maintenance.

Funding Needs

Funding will be used to accelerate ECVC’s market readiness, productization, and European scale-up. Priority investments will focus on the development and validation of high-demand micro-credentials and certification exams, including competence frameworks, assessment content, validated item banks, reviewer processes, quality assurance, and exam governance. Funding will also strengthen the digital infrastructure required for secure credential issuance, candidate onboarding, partner management, analytics, verification, data protection, and scalable certification delivery. A second priority is market expansion through partnerships with VET providers, universities, employers, professional organisations, and EU-funded consortia. Resources will support targeted outreach, pilot delivery, partner onboarding, marketing, and the integration of ECVC certification packages into Erasmus+, Horizon Europe, skills, innovation, and capacity-building projects. Funding will also help expand ECVC’s expert network, advisory structures, reviewers, certification committees, and standard operating procedures, ensuring robust governance, credibility, and long-term sustainability.