Middle East Business
Abu Dhabi launches the Gulf's first blockchain-verified Digital Skills Card so employers can check a certificate by QR code
By Staff Writer | 8 September 2026
The Abu Dhabi Quality and Conformity Council and Union Assessment and Quality Accreditation launched the card on 7 September. Each card is tied to a certification from a personnel conformity programme accredited by the council, and an employer, regulator or client can scan the code to confirm it is valid and authentic on the emirate's regulated blockchain.
The Abu Dhabi Quality and Conformity Council, working with Union Assessment and Quality Accreditation, launched the Digital Skills Card on 7 September 2026. The council describes it as the Gulf region's first, and as a secure, digitally verifiable record of a professional's skills and qualifications. The first cards were presented at a launch ceremony in the capital attended by government representatives, regulators, industry bodies and certified professionals.
Each card is linked to a certification awarded through a personnel conformity programme accredited by the council and delivered by the accreditation body. Employers, regulators and other parties scan a QR code on the card to verify that the certification is valid and authentic. The check runs on ADI Chain, which the council describes as the ADI Foundation's regulation-compliant blockchain infrastructure.
The accreditation body assesses and accredits workforce skills for industrial sectors, under programmes it says are aligned with regulatory requirements. The card turns the certificate those programmes award into a record that a site, a client or a regulator can check by scanning it.
What the two bodies say
Badr Khamis Al Shumaili, Executive Director of the Conformity and Standards Services Sector at the council, said digitalisation had moved beyond a way of simplifying procedures and had become a foundation for connected and transparent systems grounded in trusted data. "The launch of the Digital Skills Card is a practical step in support of this direction. It provides a secure and reliable digital means of verifying professional skills and credentials, and reinforces confidence in accredited competencies in a way that serves regulators, employers and professionals alike," he said.
The chief executive of the accreditation body, which assesses and accredits skills for industrial sectors under programmes aligned with regulatory requirements, set out the intended reach of the card and the plan to widen it.
Verified skills can travel with the individual, be recognised across institutions and borders, and retain their value wherever a professional's career may take them. Over time, we intend to expand the scope of the Digital Skills Card to encompass a broader range of certifications, qualifications and professional achievements.
Shahbaz Muhammad Khan, Director and Chief Executive Officer of Union Assessment and Quality Accreditation
Why it matters on a construction site
A contractor that has to show a client or an inspector that the people on its site hold the competence a specification or a permit requires does so today with copies of certificates, checked against the issuing body when someone asks. On the desk's reading, a card that is verified by scanning, on a chain the council itself stands behind, moves that check from the office to the gate: a client or a main contractor can write a scan into prequalification and site induction, and a certificate that cannot be scanned will begin to look like a certificate that has not been checked. Nothing in the announcement requires any employer to use the card, and no site rule has been changed.
The council says it will keep working with government entities, regulators, employers and industry bodies to extend digital credential solutions and to raise professional recognition, workforce quality and service standards across Abu Dhabi. Its wider remit covers the emirate's quality infrastructure: standardisation, conformity assessment, testing, inspection and accreditation.
What has not been stated
Neither body has said how many cards were issued at the launch, which personnel conformity programmes are covered in the first phase, whether the card will be recognised by the other emirates or by other Gulf states, what a certified professional pays for it, or a date for the wider scope the chief executive described. Those points cannot be filled in from the material published so far and are left open here.