The European Commission has published a new version of the European classification of Skills, Competences, Occupations and Qualifications (ESCO). This comes after a two-year process which involved the review of existing concepts as well as the development of new occupational and competence profiles. ESCO V1.1 is intended to respond to two main needs:
- Remain useful in the labour market and in education and training
- Review the quality of ESCO in line with stakeholder needs
ESCO v1.1 marks a few key changes from the previous version of ESCO namely:
- New content with 68 new occupations, 354 new skills and 158 new knowledge concepts created and translated in all ESCO languages
- A new hierarchy for transversal skills with a revised structure and terminology on transversal skills and competences
- Green, DigComp, and Research skills labels – the new ESCO has developed a taxonomy of skills for the green transition and for researchers as well as the skills listed in the European Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp) competence areas
- Quality improvements with 500 terms being updated whether it is through the removal of duplicates or by indicating the relationship between terms and concepts.
![Infographic on a blue background listing the 4 areas of improvement of ESCO v1.1. Two overlapping clouds indicate new occupations, skills and knowledge concepts, 3 outlines of badges overlapping and with different levels indicating a new hierarchy for transversal skills, three wavy lines to indicate labels for Green, DigComp, Research skills and knowledge concepts, and a dumbbell for quality improvements.](https://digital-skills-jobs.europa.eu/sites/default/files/inline-images/v1.1_improvements.png)
The ESCO v1.1 had contributions from the following organisations:
- The Employment Services of the EURES Network
- AREA (http://www.area-eur.be/
- ASHOKA Belgium (https://www.ashoka.org)
- ASSETS+ Blueprint (https://assets-plus.eu/results/skills-blueprint)
- AWS Training & Certification (www.aws.amazon.com/training)
- BF/M-Bayreuth (http://www.bfm-bayreuth.de)
- Blueprint S4TCLF (https://www.s4tclfblueprint.eu/)
- Centre for European Volunteering (www.europeanvolunteercentre.org)
- Centro Tecnológico das Indústrias Têxtil e do Vestuário de Portugal (www.academia.citeve.pt)
- DEVOPS project (https://smartdevops.eu/dev/)
- DRIVES Blueprint (https://www.project-drives.eu/EN/HOME)
- EGEC (https://www.egec.org)
- ENISA – the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (https://www.enisa.europa.eu)
- EO4GEO Blueprint (http://www.eo4geo.eu/project-liaisons)
- ESTRO (https://www.estro.org)
- Eurodesk Brussels Link (https://eurodesk.eu)
- European Council of Optometry and Optics (www.ecoo.info)
- European Evaluation Society (http://www.europeanevaluation.org)
- European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations (http://www.feg-touristguides.com/)
- European Geothermal Energy Council (www.egec.org)
- European Marine Biological Resource Centre (https://embrc.eu)
- European Network of Safety and Health Professional Organizations (https://www.enshpo.eu)
- European Welding Foundation (www.ewf.be)
- FERMA – Federation of European Risk Management Associations (https://www.ferma.eu)
- Hydrogen Europe (https://hydrogeneurope.eu)
- International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications (www.inatba.org)
- MATES Blueprint (https://www.projectmates.eu/)
- METIS Blueprint (https://www.metis4skills.eu)
- NATSPEC (https://natspec.org.uk)
- Next Tourism Generation Skills Alliance (https://nexttourismgeneration.eu)
- PROF/TRAC – Open Training Platform for NZEB professionals (http://proftrac.eu/open-training-platform-for-nzeb-professionals.html)
- Researchers using ESCO (https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/20/7226)
- RITCS. Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema & Sound. Erasmus University College Brussels (www.rits.be/nl/opleidingen/podiumtechnieken)
- SEA EUROPE (www.seaeurope.eu)
- SkillLab (https://skilllab.io/en-us)
- Skills4am Blueprint (http://www.skills4am.eu)
- WindEurope (https://windeurope.org/)
© European Commission