In collaboration with Marc Van Coillie, from The European Institute for eLearning, the Rhizome project has developed The application profile of Europass CV based on HR-XML SEP (Staff Exchange Protocol) Candidate specifications and the extensions for Europass/Europortfolio CV application profile.

• The application profile of Europass CV based on HR-XML SEP Candidate specifications describes a XML binding of the Europass CV as defined at the European level. This work can be seen as a proposal for an e-portfolio binding of the Europass CV from CEDEFOP using HR-XML specifications. This application profile would allow creation of Europass CV XML based documents in order to allow import/export of simple XML profile (example: aggregation of CV from personal eportfolios to a HR system).

• The extensions for Europass/Europortfolio CV application profile, as the name indicates, describes several possible extensions for the HR-XML Europortfolio/Europass CV profile in order to better fit with ePortfolio interoperability requirements, such as extension elements for higher education, for language or competency based portfolio, etc.

This application profile allows the development and update of Europass CV, Resumes and ePortfolios web applications using the Europass CV data model and the HR-XML SEP candidate specifications.

The concrete benefits of using this application profile are the following:

• Conformance with both European Europass v2 CV data model and last HR-XML specifications;
• Ease of integration with HR systems while using common open and extensible specifications;
• Use of external references and attachments for annexes to complete the CV structure;
• Integration with other Europass and European initiatives, like the Europass Diploma and the Certificate supplement, the European Qualification Framework;
• Enable the capability to use external competency frameworks;
• Addition of extra elements to extend CV semantics in an ePortfolio approach (i.e. additional elements such as publications, speaking event history, referees, affiliations, experiences, etc.);
• Addition of a relationship layer to increase semantic dialogue between parts of CV/ePortfolio (i.e. experiences with competency, education background and Europass Diploma Supplement);
• Ability to test conformance while using a common interoperability framework;
• Cross interoperability between Europass CV and HR-XML schemas with the related transformation stylesheets;
• Interoperability with other CV/ePortfolio standards (IMS ePortfolio, Leap2a, LinkedIn hResume) and production of Europass CV documents (PDF, ODT, MS Office Doc) while supporting an online transformation web service.

The documents are downloadable here and also from the EifEL website. They are available under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.

• Europass CV – HR XML Application Profile
• Extensions for the Europass CV – HR-XML Application Profile

Among the functionalities of the CV builder plugin for WordPress, there is the ability to record a candidate’s personal data using the HR-XML structure, and then transform it into several formats including hResume and Europass CV. For this reason we have started the process of updating the Application Profile (AP) of the Europass CV based on the ‘HR-XML SEP Candidate Specifications 3.0. This work will be carried out in cooperation with Marc Van Coillie from the European Institute of eLearning, France. Marc is an expert in the interoperability and integration of IT systems for eLearning, HR, KM and digital identity (HR-XML, IMS Global, Liberty Alliance, OpenID, Kantara, Micro-Format, OpenSocial, RDFa). Marc has also developed the CV transcoding web service: http://cvt.eife-l.org/index.php?language=en and the LinkedIN public profile to Europass CV converter: http://www.europortfolio.org/linkedin2europass

The Europass Application Profile is not a new development. It is the output of three years of continuous efforts from EIfEL, but also from the HR-XML Europass working group of the HR-XML consortium and the Liberty Alliance HR-EDU Special Interest Group. Many people have contributed to the AP since its first version in 2006:

• CV Universel: http://www.cvuniversel.org/

• EuroCV: http://www.eurocv.eu/

• Technology Enhanced Learning: Conformance – European Requirements & Testing: http://www.opengroup.org/telcert/

• KITE, the European mobile worker’s kit: http://www.kite-eu.org/

• TAS3: Trusted Architecture for Securely Shared Services: http://www.tas3.eu/

The funding from Eduserv under the Rhizome project will now allow us to update the existing Application Profile to the 3.0 release of the HR-XML standards. (See Candidate Profile type specifications).

This application profile makes it possible to develop Europass CV builders that are compliant with both CEDEFOP’s Europass XML and HR-XML Candidate specifications. What is exciting about this work is that it also allows the transformation of CV personal data for cross interoperability with the other major CV related specifications and standards, for example:

• HR-XML profiles – iProfile UK and GermanCV

• IMS ePortfolio – Dutch ePortfolio

• Leap2a, hResume – LinkedIn

Finally, it can also be used within the Liberty Alliance Web Service Framework to provide a shared privacy layer.

Interoperability scenario diagram

Using the plugin to create CVs is a simple three step process: create a Master CV, customise Views and Export them!

1. Once plugged into the WordPress blogging platform, the user can store his/her data in a single XML file that acts as a vault for personal and professional information: this is the Master CV. The user can create one storage file or Master CV per language, in any of the official languages of the European Union.
2. With the data contained in the Master CV, the user can create as many customised Views he/she needs. At least three structured formats are provided: a short profile, the standardised Europass CV format and a HR-XML compatible CV. The user can also take advantage of customisation functionalities in terms of choice of information display and integration with other media to create free form CVs.
3. For each View, a range of Export possibilities exist: ODT, PDF, HTML, XHTML and XML. Online publishing can also be password protected to target CVs to particular audiences.