How program architecture and cross-agency governance enabled NSW to design a comprehensive verifiable credentials ecosystem spanning nine government agencies, 810,000 students, and three education sectors.
The Education Wallet was a NSW Government initiative responding to the Shergold Review (Looking to the Future, 2020) and the Gonski Review (Through Growth to Achievement, 2018). Both reviews concluded that Australia's education system was too narrowly focused on scholastic performance and the ATAR, and that students needed a way to represent their whole self - academic achievements alongside capabilities, vocational skills, extra-curricular activities and life experiences.
The program comprised four streams: Digital Qualifications (verifiable credentials in mobile and cloud wallets), a Learner Profile (a digital passport for lifelong learning), Careers NSW (career navigation and advisory services), and a Skills Market Comparison Tool (course and provider comparison for prospective learners).
📊 Program Scale
Over 810,000 government school students, approximately 75,000 HSC completions per year, 2,200+ school locations, and three education sectors (government, Catholic and independent schools).
My Role: Program Architect
I was appointed Program Architect within the NSW Department of Education. My responsibility was to design the end-to-end architecture across all four program streams and provide architectural coherence across a complex multi-agency landscape.
The program involved nine government agencies - including the Department of Customer Service (which ran the state identity hub and Service NSW wallet), NESA (the curriculum and credentialing authority), TAFE NSW, Careers NSW, Education Services Australia, the University Admissions Centre, and federal departments. Each agency had its own architects, technology platforms, procurement cycles and priorities.
Leading the Cross-Agency Architecture Review Board
I chaired the cross-agency architecture review board, bringing together architects and technical leads from across the program's nine agencies to establish common architectural direction.
In practice, this meant navigating competing priorities and different ways of working across agencies that were each independently building components of the broader credential ecosystem. Running the review board was as much about alignment and negotiation as it was about technical design - reviewing integration approaches, resolving conflicting data models and building consensus on standards adoption across organisations with very different levels of technical maturity.
Cross-Agency Coordination
The Education Wallet required coordination across nine government entities, each with their own technology platforms, governance processes, and delivery timelines:
| Agency | Role in Program |
|---|---|
| NSW Department of Education | Program lead, Learner Profile, school credentials |
| Department of Customer Service (DCS) | Digital Identity and Verifiable Credential Hub, SNSW wallet |
| NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) | HSC, RoSA and VET credential issuance |
| TAFE NSW | VET credentials, First Aid certificate pilot |
| Service NSW | Identity management, mobile wallet, SSO |
| Careers NSW | Career pathways and advisory services |
| Education Services Australia (ESA/NSIP) | Standards, SCoT, capability mapping |
| University Admissions Centre (UAC) | National Credential Platform |
| Federal Department of Education | USI, MicroCred Seeker, national alignment |
Coordinating architecture across this many stakeholders meant the solution patterns needed to be technology-agnostic enough to accommodate different agency platforms, while prescriptive enough on standards (credentials format, identity protocols, API contracts) to ensure interoperability.
What I Delivered
As Program Architect, I delivered the complete architectural foundation spanning technical standards, cross-agency integration, and implementation guidance.
Program Architecture
Complete program architecture spanning all four streams - solution and context architecture, functional architecture, integration architecture, identity architecture and credential ecosystem design.
Verifiable Credentials Architecture
W3C Verifiable Credentials architecture including credential lifecycle, trust model, JSON-LD schemas, and digital signatures.
Covered both accredited and unaccredited school-level credentials.
Credential Taxonomy
Catalogued 100+ credential types with discovery framework (Desirable, Feasible, Viable) for prioritisation.
Created Open Badges 2.0 templates in JSON and CSV formats.
Federated Identity Design
Federated identity management across public, Catholic and independent schools with four identifier systems - Student Registration Number, NESA ID, Unique Student Identifier, and Service NSW Citizen Number.
Cloud Wallet for Equity
Designed cloud wallet alongside mobile wallet to ensure equitable access for students without smartphones.
Neither Apple nor Google Wallet supports education credentials.
Integration Architecture
Integration patterns for vendor-diverse school landscape. Six integration options from SIF AU API to CSV/JSON upload, with pragmatic phasing from batch to real-time.
Technical Pilots
Pilot 1: HSC/RoSA credentials via National Credential Platform
Pilot 2: School-issued credentials using Open Badges 2.0
Key Architectural Decisions
Seven architectural decisions fundamentally shaped the programme's approach and remain relevant to similar digital credential initiatives:
1. Interoperability over Forced Standardisation
Rather than forcing agreement on a single capability framework (as the Shergold Review recommended), designed an interoperability approach that mapped between existing frameworks - ACARA General Capabilities, Australian Skills Classification, Core Skills for Work, Employability Skills Framework and NESA Skills Framework.
2. Cloud Wallets for Equity
Don't assume every student has a smartphone. Design cloud wallet capability alongside mobile wallets to ensure equitable access.
3. VCs as Cattle, Not Pets
Let sectors self-govern credential creation at scale rather than centralised approval for every credential type. Enable the "long tail" of school-level badges and achievements.
4. Education Schemas Inside the W3C Envelope
W3C VC provided the common transport layer, but every issuer and verifier still needed to read the payload consistently. Defining education-specific data schemas for the "letter inside the envelope" was the non-obvious but critical interoperability challenge.
5. Guardian-Aware by Design
Advocated for a guardianship model for students under 16, designing proposed approaches for guardian wallets with delegated authority, consent management with callbacks to school systems (including AVO checking), support for multiple guardians with different responsibility levels, and the transition from dependent to self-sovereign identity at age milestones.
6. Pragmatic Phasing
Batch integration for MVP, real-time APIs for scale. Meet vendors where they are today while establishing the path to standards-based integration.
7. Existing Governance as Foundation
Digitise existing accreditation infrastructure (ASQA for RTOs, TEQSA for universities, NESA for schools) rather than invent new bureaucracy. Trust Over IP Foundation framework aligned naturally with existing education governance.
Technology & Standards
| Component | Technology/Standard |
|---|---|
| Credential Standards | W3C Verifiable Credentials, Open Badges 2.0/3.0, CLR 2.0, CASE, W3C DID |
| Identity | OIDC, SSO federation, decentralised identifiers, MyGovID, Service NSW identity |
| Integration | SIF AU, RESTful APIs, event-driven streaming, CSV/JSON bulk upload, LTI |
| Platforms | Service NSW app, Adobe Commerce, AWS, National Credential Platform (Green DLT) |
| School Systems | Sentral, Compass, SchoolBytes, Canvas, Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams |
Program Outcome
The Education Wallet was cancelled when the NSW Government changed hands in 2023. A separate federal initiative was subsequently launched to address similar goals at a national level; however, its focus was on further education rather than primary and secondary education, and it did not address non-accredited credentials. That initiative too eventually stalled.
The architectural patterns and design decisions remain relevant. The W3C Verifiable Credentials standard has since reached 2.0 (May 2025), Open Badges is now at 3.0 (June 2024), and the Comprehensive Learner Record is at 2.0 (March 2025) - confirming the technical direction was sound. The Shergold Review recommendations remain largely unaddressed at a national level.
Key Deliverables
- →Program architecture documentation
- →Solution architecture and context diagrams
- →Identity architecture and federation design
- →Integration architecture and domain API specifications
- →Verifiable credential pilot designs (2 pilots)
- →Credential taxonomy (100+ credential types) and lifecycle documentation
- →Open Badges 2.0 data format templates (JSON and CSV)
- →Meta-framework mapping proposal (with ESA/NSIP)
- →Multi-year roadmap (pilot, foundation, scale, operate phases)
- →User journey narratives ("Charlie's Story")
- →Cross-agency architecture governance - chairing review board across nine agencies
I work as an enterprise architect specialising in mission-driven organisations - education, health, aged care, and community services. The Education Wallet represented complex cross-agency coordination in the education domain, establishing standards and patterns for verifiable credentials that remain relevant to digital identity initiatives across government.