Cardano Academy has introduced a new practicum in partnership with the education platform Andamio, rewarding approved projects with credentials recorded on the Cardano blockchain. The Cardano Foundation announced the initiative on November 12. Participants can submit either a working project or a pitch for evaluation, then claim a credential recorded on Cardano once their submission clears review.

Unlike ordinary course certificates, the practicum centers on the submission of work for evaluation rather than on course completion alone. According to the Foundation, registration requires neither a crypto wallet nor ADA, lowering the barrier to entry. However, the criteria for approval and the cost of receiving certificates have not yet been revealed. Those open points, together with the unexplained handling of issued records, are the details to track as the program moves from announcement to its first accepted submissions.

How the Cardano Practicum Will Operate

An applicant begins by producing an initial build or a proposal. The submission only becomes valid once a reviewer accepts it. The Foundation described the credential process in its announcement of the program:

The Cardano Academy has partnered with @andamio_teams to launch the Cardano Academy Practicum. Submit your build or pitch. Once a reviewer accepts it, claim a credential recorded on Cardano. No wallet or ada needed to sign up. pic.twitter.com/NJ7MhKTS2O

— Cardano Foundation (@Cardano_CF) November 12, 2026

The Foundation's reference to a no-wallet sign-up appears to apply to course participation and may not extend to the credential itself, as organizers have not yet explained where participants will keep their records once they are issued.

Andamio supplies the underlying technology for the new Cardano Academy program. Its protocol registers users' activities, assessments, and claims on the blockchain, and it also tracks projects and task approvals as they move through review.

For coursework, learners are required to prove their assignments to assessors. An assessor then decides whether the work meets the requirements, and a learner whose submission falls short can modify the assignment and try again. Coursework that is approved can be used to obtain a verifiable credential.

The project track follows a connected process. Participants commit to an assignment and prove that they have completed it. Project managers then evaluate the submitted information, and participants are able to claim their records if their work succeeds.

Beyond tracking, Andamio also makes it possible to build applications that can identify credentials the platform has issued. The infrastructure underpinning the program runs on the Cardano mainnet.

Existing Cardano Courses Follow Different Paths

According to the Cardano Foundation, its Academy has reached more than 10,000 students. The Academy's education offering consists of self-learning programs, certification exams, enterprise courses, and organizational training, and the practicum adds a submission-based component to that lineup.

Several credentialing formats already exist within the Academy. Some certification badges require a supervised exam taken through Pearson VUE, while others recognize completion of a course, university program, or masterclass delivered by the Academy and are issued through the Credly platform. The practicum's credential departs from both formats: recognition hinges on accepted work rather than exam supervision or course completion, and the resulting record is written to Cardano's own ledger instead of being issued through an outside platform.

The Academy's Blockchain Certified Associate course comprises 26 learning modules. Students study digital signatures, consensus, staking, governance, and networking, along with the extended unspent transaction output mechanism used by Cardano. The technical portion of the offering also compares proof-of-work and proof-of-stake systems and introduces the network's Ouroboros family of consensus protocols as well as scaling technologies such as Hydra and Mithril.

University Deals Broaden Cardano Training

The Foundation has also broadened its educational collaborations with universities. In October, it sponsored the teaching of blockchain and digital assets at the University of Nicosia, a collaboration that included 25 sponsored seats in the advanced version of the program. That program is set to launch on February 8, 2027, and includes eight weeks of introductory classes followed by four weeks of advanced classes, with Academy lectures covering the basics of Cardano and transaction design.

A further education route was established through a September agreement with UCLA Anderson's Venture Accelerator. Under that deal, Academy content will be used in a business and finance blockchain class in 2027, and five sponsored fellowships will be awarded to selected start-ups. The fellowship package provides mentorship, funding, and access to the ecosystem, and it is separate from the recently created Andamio assessment program. The Foundation has also pledged support for UCLA's 2027 Draper Innovation Showcase.

Beyond university programs, the Foundation signed an agreement in March 2025 with SERPRO, a Brazilian public technology provider, covering academy-based training for 8,000 of the company's workers, including more than 2,000 developers. Taken together, the academic and workforce agreements extend the Academy's training footprint across institutions in Cyprus, the United States, and Brazil, and the scheduled launches — the University of Nicosia program beginning February 8, 2027, and the UCLA blockchain class in 2027 — mark the next milestones in that expansion.