The GAGE Verified Capability Framework
How should employers verify AI capability? Credible evidence is all seven of these.
Credible evidence of AI capability is demonstrated, assessed, competency-specific, independently verifiable, tamper-evident, current and inspectable. A claim that fails any one of the seven is a claim, not evidence.
- 1
Demonstrated
The person did the thing, in front of a process that could have failed them.
- The test:
- Ask what the person had to produce, and whether anyone could have said no.
- What fails it:
- A certificate of completion, a watched video, a self-reported skill on a resume.
- How a GAGE record meets it:
- Every topic ends in a teach-back: the learner explains the lesson in their own words with the material closed, and a passed explanation can be followed by an oral defense question minted from that explanation.
- 2
Assessed
A stated rubric produced a score, and a score below the bar meant no credit.
- The test:
- Ask for the rubric and the pass mark. If neither exists, nothing was assessed.
- What fails it:
- Attendance, participation, a badge for finishing, a quiz with unlimited retries and no record of the attempts.
- How a GAGE record meets it:
- Teach-backs are scored on coverage, accuracy, plain language and the learner's own example, against the lesson's own transcript. Scenarios grade judgment. The mastery score is half continuous work and half the final exam.
- 3
Competency-specific
The evidence names what the person can do, not the course they sat.
- The test:
- Ask which competencies are covered and which are not. A credential that cannot say is a course name.
- What fails it:
- A program title standing in for a skill list, a single overall grade, "AI skills" as one line.
- How a GAGE record meets it:
- The record lists every topic and the concepts inside it, passed or not, and the same competency map drives the role readiness reports on the careers pages.
- 4
Independently verifiable
A stranger can confirm it without asking the candidate or trusting the issuer's word.
- The test:
- Open it yourself, without a login, and see whether the issuer's page confirms what the candidate showed you.
- What fails it:
- A PDF, a screenshot, a LinkedIn badge that links back to a page anyone could write.
- How a GAGE record meets it:
- Every credential carries a signed QR that opens the living record on gage.academy without an account. The sample record is public.
- 5
Tamper-evident
A changed record fails, and a revoked record says so.
- The test:
- Ask what happens if a score is edited or the purchase is reversed.
- What fails it:
- Anything editable by the holder, anything that survives a refund unchanged.
- How a GAGE record meets it:
- Records are cryptographically signed; an altered record fails verification, and a refunded program marks its credential withdrawn on the public page.
- 6
Current
The evidence says when it was earned and keeps moving as the person does.
- The test:
- Find the date, and ask whether the record has changed since.
- What fails it:
- An undated badge, a lifetime credential for a field that changes monthly.
- How a GAGE record meets it:
- The record is live: it updates as the learner keeps passing, and each program carries the date its content was last checked for currency.
- 7
Inspectable
An employer can see the evidence itself and question it.
- The test:
- Ask to see the work behind the score, and ask the record a question about it.
- What fails it:
- A score with nothing behind it, a transcript that lists titles and grades and nothing else.
- How a GAGE record meets it:
- The record shows the scores topic by topic, the learner's own explanations when they turn their dossier on, and an employer can ask it questions that are answered only from what the learner passed.
Where GAGE's own record is still short
A framework its author passes without exception is marketing. These are the places our record does not yet meet the bar above, stated so you can check.
Demonstrated does not yet cover every topic
The teach-back gate needs a transcript to grade against. 119 of the 816 open topics carry it today; the rest gate on their quiz and scenario until their transcripts land. The number here is counted from the registries, not typed.
Current has no re-test interval
The record moves forward as the learner keeps passing, but nothing yet asks a learner to prove a topic again after a year. A verified record that is never re-verified drifts; that interval is designed and not shipped.
Independently verifiable still means verified by GAGE
The signature is ours and the record lives on our domain. No outside body accredits this framework or audits our grading, and the page does not claim otherwise.
Use it on anyone
The seven tests apply to any credential, ours included. Put a certificate, a badge or a resume line through them in order and stop at the first one it fails. Most stop at the first. The published method behind our own record is on the GAGE Standard.