Downloading a credential template
How a credential issuer takes RPF's machine-readable description of a recognised role and uses it as the starting point for real, signed credentials.
An issuer wants to start issuing credentials for a role that RPF describes and a body recognises. Rather than re-describe the role, the issuer downloads RPF's credential template — a description of the RPF Framework for that recognised role, in a standard format built for software to read.
This page is for issuers — the recognising body's own credentials team, or a certification body or credential platform acting further down the line.
What a template is — and what it is not
A template carries the framework, not the credential. It is safe to share and store.
- The RPF Framework, structured
- A machine-readable description of the recognised role, profile or flow — what the credential recognises.
- Competence items
- The concrete items behind the role, with their levels and links to the standards they cite.
- Evidence requirements
- What the recognising body expects a candidate to provide to earn the credential — the plain-language statement from the recognition record.
- Validity period
- How long the credential stays valid and how often it must be renewed, where the body specifies these.
- CPD points
- Continuing-professional-development credit, where the body publishes one — labelled with the body's own scheme.
- No recipient
- A template names no person. It is not made out to anyone — the issuer adds the recipient at issuance time.
- No signature
- A template is unsigned. The issuer applies its own signature; only then is it a credential.
- No achievement record
- A template is not a record that anyone has earned this credential. It is the description of the credential, not a copy of one.
Two open formats
RPF emits the template in either of two open, widely used credential formats. The issuer picks at download time.
An open standard for digital credentials, maintained by 1EdTech. RPF emits the recognised role as an OB 3.0 Achievement, with the framework, evidence and validity baked in.
A W3C standard for cryptographically verifiable credentials. RPF emits the same framework content shaped to the W3C VC data model and context — ready for the issuer's signer.
The same inputs, the same output
A template is deterministic: identical inputs always yield byte-identical output.
The template comes out identical every time it is produced for the same set of inputs — the version of the role, profile or flow, the recognition record, the item-to-credential evidence links, and the chosen format (with its standard's context version). If any of those changes, the next download reflects the change.
An issuer can store a template and trust it has not silently changed. Because the next download tracks the inputs, a change to the underlying role, evidence link or recognition record produces a new template — which is also the signal that tells the issuer it may be time to re-issue.
Open access, read-only
Downloading a template is open to anyone and is read-only.
Because a template holds no personal data and is simply the RPF Framework written in a standard format, anyone may download it without logging in. RPF makes a template available only for an active recognition on a formally-published role, profile or flow.
RPF may keep a count of downloads for analytics. It does not track who downloaded which template, and the download is never gated.
Where RPF stops and the issuer signs
RPF provides the template unsigned. The issuer adds the recipient's identity and applies its own signature; only then is it a credential, and the issuer issues it. RPF never sees, signs or stores that credential.
Next steps
If you maintain a recognition record on the body's side, the for-recognising-bodies page covers the fields you set and the lifecycle they go through.
