Practical skill checks for entry-level hires, with the work attached
TL;DR Workproof runs short, supervised practical tests for one family of entry-level jobs, starting with accounts assistants. Every pass turns into a signed digital credential with the candidate's actual work attached. Employers and staffing firms pay, because a credential they can open and inspect saves them a whole round of screening.
A degree tells an Indian employer very little. In 2022, 29.1% of graduates aged 15–29 were unemployed, against 3.4% of young people who cannot read or write, and educated youth made up 65.7% of everyone unemployed[1]. The same ILO report says only 4% of young Indians had any formal vocational training, and skills picked up on the job never get measured at all[1].
So hiring for a junior accounts or back-office role turns into guesswork. Picture a small CA firm in Indore that gets 200 CVs saying "accounting software, GST, spreadsheets", interviews twenty of them and still finds out on day three that the new hire can't reconcile a bank statement.
The seed pitched blockchain nano-credentials. I dropped the blockchain, because storage was never the weak point. DigiLocker already holds 900+ crore issued documents[2], the Open Badges 3.0 standard signs credentials with ordinary cryptographic proofs[3], and even one big credential-hosting platform's entry plan lists blockchain credentials as a feature[4]. The real question is what a certificate actually proves.
Here's how it works - Workproof starts with one role family. A candidate books a 60–90 minute test at a partner centre or a supervised online slot and does real tasks, like posting a month of vouchers, reconciling a bank statement, fixing a wrong GST entry and building a simple spreadsheet summary. A trained assessor marks it against a rubric written with five or six local employers. A pass gives a credential link that shows the score, the tasks and the files the candidate produced.
So the employer opens the work itself, not a badge. Other roles (customer support, data entry, inside sales) come later, and only once the first one has employers paying.
The candidates are B.Com and BBA graduates, often in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. The payers are CA firms, SMEs and staffing agencies that hire accounts freshers in volume. Today they pay with interview time or buy general tests, and one large employability-test provider says 1,000+ companies use its test[5]. Candidates already spend ₹1,800–9,999 on courses from the accounting-software maker's own training arm[6]. The working assumption is that employers pay per verified shortlist and candidates test free or for a small fee.
The current Open Badges 3.0 release, dated June 2026, lines up with W3C Verifiable Credentials 2.0[3], so anyone can check a credential without a proprietary platform. The Academic Bank of Credits now covers 1,200+ institutions and 33.71 crore APAAR IDs[7], which gets students used to digital records. And the DPDP Act spells out how candidate data must be handled[8].
Nobody publishes a figure for an Indian skills-verification market. The firmer signals are about behaviour. 1,000+ companies already pay for a general employability test[5], and the ILO data puts graduate unemployment near 30%[1], so the pool of candidates who need a better signal is big. Treat both as context though, not a market size.
Large employability-test providers test aptitude and broad employability at scale[5]. Accounting-software makers train and certify people on their own software, with an online certificate check[6]. Credential-hosting platforms issue and host credentials but don't assess anyone[4]. NCVET-recognised awarding bodies certify NSQF qualifications, which take weeks of training[9].
I couldn't find anyone who tests a junior accountant on a real task in under two hours and shows the work to the employer. That's the gap.
| Difficulty | Moderate (37/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹45–85 L |
| Time to launch | 5–8 months |
The software is the modest bit. Trust is the hard part, which means rubrics employers agree on, assessors who mark the same way every time and supervision tight enough that nobody sits the test for someone else. Selling to small CA firms one by one is slow, so staffing agencies are the likelier first customers.
No sector licence is needed to run a private skill test, as long as you don't call it a formal qualification.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't let AI decide pass or fail on its own. A wrong mark costs a real person a job, so a trained assessor signs off every credential.
Want to work out the AI layer for Workproof? Talk to Yash →
Here's what can go south -
I'd give this a serious look if you come from a staffing firm, a CA practice or an assessment company and already know ten employers by name. If you're hoping the credential format will sell itself then it is a weak fit, honestly. Before anything else, prove that three employers will pay for a shortlist and hire from it within 30 days.
Plan for roughly ₹45–85 L, most of it on rubrics, assessors, supervision and selling to the first employers. Starting with one role family keeps it at the lower end.
Not for a private skill test. You need an NCVET-recognised awarding body only if you want to offer an NSQF-aligned qualification, plus DPDP compliance for candidate data.
Yes. The model of a short practical test with the work attached travels well, but write the tasks around local accounting software and tax rules, and follow your own data protection law.
The free Workproof validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the data-protection and credential-claims checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for employers and candidates, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Workproof or something close to it? The make-or-break work is getting employers to agree on one rubric and pay for the shortlist it produces, and that's the kind of thing I help founders figure out. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.