European classification of Skills, Competences, Occupations and Qualifications (ESCO)
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Experts from many international, regional and national agencies generously share their views, experiences and findings on skills, helping policy-makers among other stakeholders to understand the linkages between education, training and the world of work, and how to integrate skills into national development planning to promote employment and economic growth.
Access to training
Access for all to good quality education, vocational training and workplace learning is a fundamental principle of social cohesion and economic growth. Some groups of people may require targeted attention if they are to benefit from education, training and employment opportunities.
This is particularly the case for disadvantaged youth, lower skilled workers, people with disabilities, and people in rural communities. The attractiveness of vocational education and training is enhanced when combined with entrepreneurship training and when public policies encourage utilization of higher skills by business.
Lifelong learning
There is a critical need for a greater overall investment in education and training, particularly in developing countries. Education and training investments should be closely linked to economic and employment growth strategies and programmes. Responsibility should be shared between the government (primary responsibility), enterprises, the social partners, and the individual. To make lifelong learning for all a reality, countries will need to make major reforms of their vocational and education and training systems. School-to-work schemes for young people should integrate education with workplace learning. Training systems need to become more flexible and responsive to rapidly changing skill requirements. Reforms should also focus on how learning can be facilitated, not just on training for specific occupational categories.
Other knowledge products
European classification of Skills, Competences, Occupations and Qualifications (ESCO) is the multilingual classification of European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations. ESCO is part of the Europe 2020 strategy.
The ESCO classification identifies and categorises skills, competences, qualifications and occupations relevant for the EU labour market and education and training. It systematically shows the relationships between the different concepts.
The European Commission has launched the first full version of the European classification of Skills, Competences, Occupations and Qualifications (ESCO).
The classification is available in 26 languages (the 24 EU languages, Icelandic and Norwegian).
ESCO facilitates the dialogue between labour market and the education/training sector by providing a common language that could help overcome labour market imbalances and increase occupational and geographical mobility in the EU.
Concretely, ESCO:
- Connects people and jobs, by providing a common language that helps jobseekers to find the job that best matches their skills. As recruitment is increasingly digitised, both employers and jobseekers need to use digital tools that allow them to communicate in a meaningful manner. ESCO aims to make these digital tools work better together;
- Connects employment and education, as education providers can use it to describe the expected learning outcomes of their curricula and to understand better the labour market trends and future skills needs;
- Connects labour markets at EU level, by acting as the digital enabler of labour market mobility. The Commission has the ambition for ESCO to become the European classification for the information exchange via EURES, as foreseen by the EURES Regulation.
The first full version (ESCO v1) is available free of charge through the ESCO service platform. It covers 2 942 occupations, 13 485 knowledge, skills and competences and will progressively display information on qualifications provided by the Member States. The Commission also envisages integrating private, international and sectorial qualifications from other sources into ESCO in the near future. It is piloting this approach and discussing it with the Member States.
The publication of ESCO v1 is a key milestone in the achievement of objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy and the New Skills Agenda for Europe.
Competency
Job matching
Qualification frameworks
Skills utilization
Talent mobility
Europe and Central Asia
