Blue Dot Experiment

Local labour markets remain fragmented and opaque, with trained candidates and job opportunities largely undiscoverable to one another. Employers, especially MSMEs, face high search costs and delays in hiring, while job seekers lack trusted, local visibility. Existing job platforms are platform-centric and poorly suited to hyperlocal and informal employment contexts, creating a need for open, interoperable discovery mechanisms. The disconnect between trained graduates and nearby employers often results in prolonged hiring cycles and underutilised local skills, even where training capacity exists.

ONEST is an initiative of the EkStep Foundation, a philanthropic organisation focused on enabling population-scale impact through open digital infrastructure in education, skilling, and employment. ONEST aims to create an open, interoperable network for discovery and matching across training providers, employers, credentialing agencies, and government programmes, reducing reliance on closed, platform-centric job platforms. The initiative develops common protocols and shared registries that allow multiple actors to participate in local labour markets through common digital rails. Through pilots such as Blue Dot and collaborations with state skill missions, training institutions, and industry partners, ONEST is demonstrating how open networks can improve access to opportunities, reduce hiring friction, and support hyperlocal employment ecosystems. It is guided by principles of openness, portability, and public-interest governance.