Rasa Zygmantaite, Secretary of EfVET, participated in the conference “ESCO: connecting people and jobs”, where the ESCO developers presented the V.1 of the framework.

What is ESCO?

ESCO is the multilingual classification of European Skills, Competences, Occupations and Qualifications. The ESCO classification identifies and categorises skills, competences, qualifications and occupations relevant for the European labour market and education and training.

How can EfVET members benefit from ESCO?

• It is a good tool for career guidance specialists at institutions (e.g. creating student’s e-profiles and e-portfolio).
• It is a tool for our graduates- who are building their career in the digital age- to find the right employment.
• It is a good tool for VET and other educational institutions to ensure transparency in qualifications, using unique descriptors and terminology.

ESCO is an open data system, linked to other existing tools and platforms, such as EURES, EQF, ISCED 2013, etc., providing an easy way for the users/service providers in building their applications, such as job matching, career guidance and self-assessment tools to citizens.

Rationale

The development of the system is an answer to the changing situation in the labour market, functioning in the digital era and is a part of the EC agenda on Digital Single Market

The participants could choose from 21 workshops, where projects, platforms and systems, that are linked or supporting ESCO were presented. The ESCO system is still being finalized and links are being established to the existing tools and platforms.

More information: www.ec.europa.eu/esco/portal/home and www.europortfolio.org