Certree and the Kern Community College District launch partnership to enable students and employees to own and control their personal credentials

Partnership will help these institutions' employees and students control their own academic and employment-related data, protecting them from identity theft, and preventing fraudulent use of education credentials.

SAN MATEO, Calif. and BAKERSFIELD, Calif., June 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Certree, a document anti-fraud and data security company, has partnered with Kern Community College District (KCCD) to provide a secure private vault to all its students, alumni, faculty, and staff. With Certree, the three institutions affiliated with the district, Bakersfield College, Cerro Coso College, and Porterville College, can now issue tamper-proof credentials such as proof of employment, proof of income, diplomas, transcripts, micro-credentials, and certificates directly to their constituents, providing unprecedented transparency, control, privacy, and data security.

KCCD Chancellor Sonya Christian is looking forward to the partnership, stating, "The benefit we can now offer to our students and employees to own their own credentials with privacy protection is much appreciated by our user community. This marks a new way of ensuring we are protecting sensitive information for all our constituents."

"It is important for our campus to offer students direct electronic access to their verifiable records. One key benefit of this new system is the ability to automatically issue authentic digital transcripts directly to the students, which is more secure than any other methods, such as issuing a paper transcript" said Michelle Smith, Executive Director of Enrollment Systems and Integrated Support. "The credentials issued to each individual's vault can be reused by our students and employees in their future academic and career pursuits. In addition, Certree eliminated a lot of manual work by offering us one digital platform for issuing all credentials to our constituents, all through user self-service. We look forward to continuing to innovate with Certree to better serve our students and employees."

Certree zero-trust technology replaces the need for institutions to manually issue credentials or rely on any middlemen to serve verification requests, which could lead to data breaches or misuse of personal information without the student or employee's consent. With Certree, institutions can send sensitive data directly to an individual's vault which can only be accessed by the rightful owner of the data. Data self-sovereignty empowers users to have control and transparency over significant life changes, such as applying for a new job or enrolling in a graduate program.

"We are honored to partner with the Kern Community College District known for its innovative mindset in serving its students and employees. We look forward to a long-term partnership and continuing to deliver innovation for the future state of credentials in higher education." says Pavan Kochar, CEO Certree.

About Certree

Certree is a document anti-fraud and data security company that enables individuals to own and control their private data. Certree zero-trust technology ensures that only the individual data owner can view or share the data from their vault, and Certree technology guarantees the authenticity of documents shared directly by the individual via Certree. Certree has empowered over 30,000 organizations to issue credentials and protect millions of employees and students. Thousands of verifiers, including government entities, banks, lenders, and education institutions, verify authentic documents shared directly by data owners through Certree. For more information, visit Certree.com.

About Kern Community College District

Kern Community College District serves over 45,000 students through the programs of Bakersfield College, Cerro Coso College, and Porterville College. Governed by a locally elected Board of Trustees, the district's colleges offer programs and services that develop student potential and create opportunities for its citizens. Kern Community College District is part of the California Community Colleges.

SOURCE Certree