ESCO – the multilingual classification of Skills, Competences, Qualifications
and Occupation in Europe
ESCO is a portal that is part of the Europe 2020 strategy which identifies and classifies the skills, competences, qualifications, and occupations relevant for the EU labor market and for education and training and systematically shows the relationships between different concepts.
It is a tool promoted by the European Commission that is very useful for those who want to work abroad as it allows them to better classify their training-professional path in terms of the European job market thus creating more job opportunities.
How does it work?
Esco works like a dictionary – describing, identifying, and classifying the occupations, skills, and professional qualifications relevant to the EU labor market and education and training.
The portal is used by several online platforms that combine job seekers with occupations based on their skills, suggesting training courses to people who want to renew or improve skills, etc. This is possible because ESCO allows the understanding of concepts and relationships through electronic systems.
Specifically, this service provides the description of 2942 professions and 13,485 related skills, translated into 27 languages (all official languages of the EU plus Icelandic, Norwegian and Arabic).
Why is it useful?
ESCO’s goal is to support professional mobility throughout Europe and therefore a more integrated and efficient job market, offering a “common language” on occupations and skills.
The portal helps people understand:
- the type of knowledge and skills required when working in a given occupation;
- what knowledge, skills, and competences are obtained following a specific qualification;
- what kind of qualifications are required by employers to those looking for work in a particular profession.
Roles of Esco:
- it is used in online applications and platforms;
- connects employment to education;
- connects people and work;
- connects labor markets and promotes mobility.
For more information visit the dedicated page of the European Commission.
