UpSkillZone

FAQ — UpSkillZone

Frequently asked questions

Plain answers about how the platform works — for learners, mentors, and employers. If something isn't covered here, write to founders@upskillzone.com.

§1

About the platform

What UpSkillZone is and how it differs from a course catalog.

What is UpSkillZone?
UpSkillZone is an outcome-based training platform for AI engineering roles. We issue cryptographically verifiable credentials and charge employers per verified hire — not per click, not per applicant, not per seat.
How is this different from Coursera?
Coursera sells completion certificates. We issue W3C Verifiable Credentials in Open Badges 3.0 form, where every claim is bound to a graded artifact and a calibrated mentor score. Anyone with the credential URL can verify the cryptographic proof offline, forever.
What is a Job Twin?
A Job Twin is a graded simulation of a real role — same stack, same constraints, same adversarial evals a hiring manager would run. You ship code; the rubric grades structure and outputs; mentors calibrate the score against a kappa floor of 0.7.
What is a mentor?
A practicing engineer who grades Job Twin submissions against the rubric. Mentors are calibrated quarterly against a gold-set of pre-graded submissions and recalibrate before grading counts again if they fall below the kappa floor.
What is a credential?
A signed JSON-LD document at a stable URL. It lists the skills you proved, the artifacts behind each claim, the issuer key id, and an Ed25519 signature. Verifiers check it against our published JWKS endpoint without contacting us.

§2

For learners

Pacing, pricing, retakes, and how the credential travels.

How long does a track take?
Twelve to sixteen weeks of focused work for the standard track, paced around four Job Twins. Part-time learners typically run six months. The credential mints on the day you clear the final calibrated bar, not on a fixed graduation date.
How much does it cost?
Tuition is listed on the track page. We do not run a subscription model. Income-share options are available in jurisdictions where they are legal; the ISA terms are on the enrollment page in plain English.
What happens if I do not get hired?
Your credential remains valid — it certifies skill, not placement. The skills directory keeps surfacing you to employers as long as your consent.scope is set to public or employer_index. Re-attempts on Job Twins are unlimited.
Can I retake a Job Twin?
Yes. Retakes use a different prompt seed so you cannot memorize the answer. Each attempt is timestamped on your learning record; only the highest calibrated score binds to the credential.
How do I prove my credential to an employer?
Send the credential URL. The employer pastes it into any W3C VC verifier (or ours at /verify) and gets a green check against our JWKS. They see the skills, the artifacts, and the revocation status. No login, no API key.

§3

For mentors

Joining the grading queue, calibration, and pay.

How do I become a mentor?
Apply at /mentors with a portfolio link. We invite you to grade a calibration set of pre-scored submissions; if your kappa agreement against the gold-set clears 0.7, you join the grading queue.
What is the pay?
Per-review rates are listed in the mentor dashboard at sign-up. Payouts are weekly via Stripe. Calibration grading is paid at the same rate as production grading.
What is calibration?
A quarterly check where you grade a hidden gold-set against the rubric. Cohen's kappa against the reference scores has to stay at or above 0.7. If it drops below, you recalibrate before further grading binds to credentials.
Can I review my own students?
No. The grading queue assigns submissions through a blinded router that excludes anyone you have a prior relationship with (employer, co-author, lecturer). Self-review attempts are blocked at the queue layer.

§4

For employers

Search, take-rate, and the 90-day attestation loop.

How do I find talent?
The public skills directory at /skills lists every learner who has opted in. You filter by skill, kappa-calibrated score range, and availability, then send outreach through the platform — outreach metadata is logged so the talent sees who contacted them.
How does the take-rate work?
We charge a placement fee on verified hire — a percentage of first-year base, capped, listed on the employer agreement. There is no per-seat or per-applicant fee. If the 90-day outcome attestation comes back negative, the fee is proportionally credited.
What is a hire attestation?
An Ed25519-signed object you sign when you hire a learner from the directory. It records the role, the start date, and the credential URL. Hire attestations are public and feed the platform's transparency dashboard.
What is the 90-day outcome?
Ninety days after start date you sign a second attestation stating whether the hire is performing in role. A negative outcome triggers the credit clause and updates the public outcome ledger so future learners and employers see the pattern.

§5

Trust + verification

How the cryptography, audits, and calibration hold up.

How are credentials verified?
Each credential is signed with our Ed25519 issuer key. The public verification key lives at a stable JWKS endpoint. Any third-party W3C VC verifier can resolve the key, check the signature, and check the revocation status without contacting UpSkillZone.
What is the bias audit?
We run a quarterly third-party audit on grading distributions across protected categories and on outreach conversion rates in the directory. The report and methodology are published at /transparency.
Can I trust the mentor calibration?
The kappa floor is enforced mechanically — submissions graded by a mentor below 0.7 do not bind to a credential until that mentor recalibrates. Per-mentor kappa history is visible to employers on the credential page.

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