ESCO (2015) SEC 052 FINAL Creation Date: 01/06/2015 Last update: 05/06/2015
Document on information points
1.
Purpose of the document
With this document the ESCO Secretariat updates the ESCO Maintenance Committee on methodological developments in the ESCO project prior to the 16th ESCO Maintenance Committee meeting. Maintenance Committee members and observers are welcome to ask questions via email to the ESCO Secretariat. The ESCO Secretariat will reply to the written questions either in writing before the meeting or during the scheduled Q&A-session at the ESCO Maintenance Committee meeting. On the meeting, the ESCO Secretariat will give a short overview of the questions and feedback received.
2.
Developing Work Context in ESCO: methodology and
timeline
Background
ESCO needs to provide a vocabulary that is suited for describing a specific vacant job. Explaining the work context is essential in this. Employers use work context to describe the specific settings in which the employee performs his/her tasks and functions. It can for example, describe work places, types of company, environmental conditions, products, technologies or business activities.
On the 15th MAI meeting of 18-19 March 2015, the SEC presented results of a desk research on work
context. The SEC analysed 30 randomly selected job vacancies in three economic sectors, from different sources (LinkedIn, Monster, EURES) and in different languages (English, French, Spanish). The desk research revealed that work context is a major element in almost all job vacancies. The MAI agreed that the desk research carried out by the Secretariat (SEC) had revealed a gap in the current ESCO data and that work context adds value to enrich the classification and to enhance job matching. In addition, the MAI advised the SEC to review the resources that are needed to collect the information on work context for the new 16 sectors and the existing 11 sectors.
Implementation of work context
Scope
By adding work context, ESCO will make it easier to describe the context of a specific job. For each occupation, ESCO will provide a standardised terminology of typical work context. When describing one job within this occupation, these word lists can be used to describe the context of the specific job. Work context in ESCO will not include work conditions (such as working timings, contract types or physical work conditions).
Word context in ESCO will therefore be implemented as a separate list of concepts and terms. The work context concepts will be related to occupations.
Process
The SEC planned for the resources to develop work context in all 27 economic sectors. The work will be carried out by the TEG, under supervision of the SEC and with a validation by market sector experts. Work context in ESCO will be developed, following five steps:
1. Identify work context terminology
The taxonomy expert group (TEG) identify work context terminology per sector/sub-sector by analysing online job vacancies and national occupational classifications/websites, such as ROME and Berufenet.
The TEG will analyse around 50 job vacancies per subsector from at least three different sources (LinkedIn, Monster, EURES, etc). This activity will be performed via manual analysis based on real data.
2. Group concepts Combine similar concepts according to the domain they describe. E.g. grouping all concepts that combine product categories, all concepts that describe groups of customers and all concepts that describe production technologies. This grouping is done by sub-sector.
An example is the collection of the work context terminology: animal
medicines and vaccines, diagnostic products, genetic tests into a category
called type of products. We expect that some groups of work context like
type of products or company type can be applied to several or even all
sectors/subsectors.
3. Select concepts to include
The TEG selects concepts and domains to include in the standardised terminology, based on three main criteria:
i) labour market relevance (mainly estimated by the frequency of occurrence in job vacancies);
ii) usefulness to distinguish different jobs within one occupation;
iii) added value of standardised multilingual terminology (this value is for example limited, if the context can be expressed using numbers, e.g. company size).
4. Relate work context to occupations
Once the concepts are selected and grouped, the TEG establish relationships to the occupations. To this end, they go through all occuaptions to identify: i) The domains that are relevant to describe jobs within that occupation, ii) The concepts within these domains that are frequently applicable to jobs within that occupation,
iii) Any need to add concepts or domains that are relevant for an occupation and that did not come up during the initial development of the lists of work context.
For the decision, which concepts and domains are relevant for an occupation, the TEG will rely on:
i) the occupational profile as developed so far, in particular the description, scope note, tagging with NACE and the related knowledge, skills and competences,
ii) analysis of national occupational classifications, iii) desk research.
5. Cross-check the optional skills and competences
In a final step, the TEG will cross-check the decision on optional vs. essential KSC for each occupation. KSC depending on the work context should have been qualified as "optional". If this is not the case, they correct the relationship.
Timeline
The schedule for the implementation of work context will depend on the economic sector. The reason for the different timelines is twofold:
1) Contents for the new 16 economic sectors (ESCO-16) need to be finalised before launch of the online consultation;
2) Finalisation of contents in the sectors "ICT service activities" and "Hospitality and Tourism" has high priority as pilot applications will test the data in these fields.
The following table provides an overview of the main milestones and their timeline:
Economic sector ICT service activities ESCO-11 without ICT and Hospitality
ESCO-16 and Hospitality
Final draft of the classification with work context concepts (steps 1-5 above, carried out by the TEG)
July 2015 November 2015 August 2015
Consultation market sector experts (written consultation of SREF or online consultation)
August 2015 December 2015 September 2015 –
February 2016
Data final for
translation and/or use in pilots
End of August 2015 January 2016 March 2016
Involvement of the MAI SEC will send the list to
the MAI for information
SEC will send the list to the MAI for information
MAI can follow the development of the data via CTC and/or the
Online Consultation Platform
3.
Clean-up of the skills pillar – Operational plan
Based on the documents that the Secretariat (SEC) provided to the Maintenance committee (MAI) in December 2014 and March 20151 and taking into consideration relevant discussions, the SEC is
planning to implement the Clean-up of the skills pillar. This Clean-up approach consists of five actions: 1) splitting; 2) creation of KSC collections; 3) merging KSC concepts; 4) creation of associative relationship among KSC concepts and 5) solving complex cases.
As shown in the table below, the SEC estimated the workload for each of these five steps.
Five Clean-up actions Dates Person days (estd.)
Splitting2 After the finalisation of each sector 70
Creation of KSC collections April 2016 - May 2016 166
Creation of associative relationships June 2016 - July 2016 131 Merging KSC concepts with identical scope August 2016 - September 2016 48
Solving complex cases October 2016 - November 2016 35
Total – five actions April 2016 - November 2016 450
Methodology to clean up the skills pillar
1. Splitting
After the finalisation of each sector taxonomists will split combined concepts. The SEC estimates that in ESCO v1 approx. 15% of all skills concepts are affected.
Step Description
Identification Taxonomists will analyse the concepts in order to assess whether they need to be split (in all 27 sectors - after the content of each sector is finalised)
Splitting and Implementation of split concepts
Taxonomist will split the identified concepts, reformulate titles and descriptions/scope notes of the new concepts accordingly
Taxonomist will quality assure the new concepts
Taxonomist will implement concepts that are split in technical terms
1Structuring the ESCO skills pillar1 presented at the MAI meeting in December 2014 and “Clean-up of the integrated KSC pillar”; ESCO
(2015) SEC 026 FINAL presented at the MAI committee in March 2015
2. Create KSC collections
The creation of KSC collections, i.e. groups of concepts that share common characteristics, will begin together in April 2016. The SEC is planning to implement this action in several phases, as shown in the table below.
Step Description
Analyse KSC and identify common characteristics
Analyse KSC concepts within the same sector, and identify their common characteristics. Apply the same method on other sectors.
Identify collections in specific sector by using the common characteristics identified in the previous phase
Identify collections within one sector and apply this action to other sectors.
Compare collections from different sectors Compare KSC collections created in each sector and identify their common characteristics (use bottom up and top-down approach)
Merge collections from different sector in common categories of collections
Merge collections that share ccommon characteristics from all sectors and fine-tune the labels
Quality assure the collections Check the inconsistencies among the collections
The Secretariat is planning to test this approach on three sectors (AGRI SREF, VETE SREF, and HOSPI).
3. Create associative relationship among KSC concepts
Once established, the collections will be a base for the next step in the clean-up process. In this step, taxonomists create associative relationships (same as, broader than, narrower than and similar) between different KSC concepts. The work that needs to be done in order to establish the relationships currently relies solely on human intervention. The taxonomists will first have to compare the concepts within the collections and then recognize/identify relationships between them. The SEC is currently investigating if IT tools could facilitate this work.
4. Merge KSC concepts with identical scope
Concepts for which taxonomists created a “same as” relationship are identical in scope. In step 4, they will be merged into one concept. This step can happen mainly automated. It will be followed by a manual quality check.
5. Solving complex cases
According to the quality assurance reports, the SEC estimates 5% of KSC concepts will be "complex cases", i.e. broader, narrower or similar in scope. This action will require intensive human intervention and will depend on taxonomists’ judgements and logical reasoning.
4.
Preparing the online consultation
Stakeholder engagement
In September 2015, the Commission intends to launch an online consultation process to develop the content of ESCO for 16 sectors of economic activity, plus Healthcare. During the consultation process, a selected panel of experts reviews ESCO on an online consultation platform. In order to ensure that a large number of experts contributes to the online consultation, the SEC informs key stakeholders about:
- the vision and benefits of ESCO - the 16 sectors which will be revised
- the timeline of the online consultation process and
- the possibility for them and their networks to participate.
In order to identify experts that can contribute to the online consultation, the SEC is currently contacting domain experts and other stakeholders for the 16 sectors. These stakeholders include in particular:
- experts in relevant Directorate-Generals (DGs) of the Commission - umbrella associations at EU level
- social partners - sector skill councils
- education and training institutions, - companies/recruiters
- European associations of schools in specific domains - employment services
- members of the ESCO Board, ESCO Maintenance Committee, Cross-sector Reference Group and the former sectoral Reference Groups.
Until 4 June 2015, we identified a total of 638 stakeholders as shown in the table below. We are currently still working to complete this list of stakeholders
Sector Number of stakeholders
Business administration 44
Chemical industry 64
Construction 36
Education 81
Manufacturing of electrical equipment, computer, electronic and optical goods
47
Finance, insurance and real estate 41
Manufacturing of consumer goods except food, beverages, tobacco, textile, apparel, leather
14
Manufacturing of machinery and equipment, except electrical equipment
23
Media 46
Manufacturing of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment
28
Manufacturing of transport equipment 43
Personal service, administrative support service and security and investigation activities
31
Public administration and defence and membership organisations
31
Scientific and technical activities 37
Wood processing, paper and printing 29
TOTAL 638
The SEC contacts all stakeholders by e-mail and sends them a link to a website containing an online brochure about ESCO and the online consultation process, as well as a registration form. Furthermore, we organise bilateral meetings with the most important organisations in each sector.
Online consultation platform
The SEC assessed the functional requirements of the first phase of the online consultation platform. The platform will allow experts to browse through the draft classification and make proposals/comments on the different parts of the classification. The platform will go live end of June 2015 and will provide background information about the online consultation and a registration form. End of August the draft classifications will be uploaded and the domain experts will be able to participate in the consulation.
5.
Fit-for-Purpose Testing
Since large parts of ESCO v1 have already been finalised, more and more potential users and parties show interest to implement the classification. The Commission engages with these parties in pilot projects to provide support, to learn how the classification is used, and how the classification can be further optimized as to meet the various specific needs of the users. The following pilot and testing projects are currently on-going:
EURES
The European Job Mobility Portal of EURES is one of the first systems that will use ESCO. EURES currently uses the pilot version (ESCO v0) as the basis for capturing relevant skills in curricula vitae. As soon as ESCO v1 becomes available, EURES will use it for the exchange of information (job vacancies, CVs) between employment services, for competence-based job matching across Europe and for online career guidance services. Discussions on the roadmap for the implementation of ESCO v1 have started.
ISA pilot project on ESCO
Within the context of the ISA programme (Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations) DG DIGIT and DG EMPL are currently involved in a pilot that tests interoperability aspects of the ESCO v1 classification. For this purpose, curricula vitae from EURES and from the Belgium public employment service VDAB are matched against job vacancies from LinkedIn. This pilot will test and demonstrate the semantic interoperability capabilities of ESCO v1 across multiple systems and languages. The ISA pilot is expected to deliver its results by end of June 2015.
Mapping Pilot
Together with four public employment services, the Commission tests the creation of mappings (i.e. machine-readable correspondence tables) between ESCO and national classification systems. This summer, the pilot with the public employment services of Spain, The Netherlands, France and the Czech Republic will move into the next phase and create the pilot mappings for the hospitality & tourism sector. The results of this pilot project are expected by October 2015.
Public Employment Services
Since multilingual content in the first economic sectors is now available for testing, the Commission invited public employment services to conduct pilot projects using ESCO on a national level. Four public employment services expressed their interest to cooperate on such pilot projects: Hungary, Cyprus, Spain and Sweden. The Commission will meet with the public employment services to
discuss the scope of each pilot and support the pilot projects with technical assistance. Discussions will start in May 2015.
Academy Cube (PDA Group)
Academy Cube is an online e-learning platform targeted to enrich STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) graduates’ skill-sets with relevant ICT competences. It forms part of a pledge that SAP made as part of the Grand Coalition of Digital Jobs. The platform itself is managed by a non-profit spin off (PDA Group) and is vendor neutral. Partners currently include SAP, CISCO and Festo; discussions with Microsoft to join the project are on-going.
The platform contains a functionality to match curricula vitae, job vacancies and qualifications on the basis of skills. The ESCO Secretariat and the PDA group have defined a pilot with the ICT data of ESCO v1. The goal is to use the ESCO classification in the core of the Academy Cube system. The implementation work on this pilot project will start in summer 2015.
6.
Linking ESCO to the database of regulated professions
A document about "the approach for covering the regulated professions in ESCO" was discussed and presented in the last ESCO Maintenance Committee meeting of 18-19 March 2015.
To implement this approach, the ESCO met with DG GROW on 24th April of 2015 met with DG
GROW in order to discuss the following topics:
how to create a complete initial mapping between ESCO occupations and the generic professions in the Regulated Professions Database;
how to record and publish the information as part of the ESCO data; and
how to continuously update the mapping in the future (in case of changes in ESCO or in the Regulated Professions Database).
The SEC started a pilot by mapping the ESCO occupations in Healthcare and Social services with the generic professions of the Regulated Professions Database. The next steps are to refine the approach and to plan the full-scale implementation for ESCO v1 content.
7.
Update on the approach towards regulated professions
Regulated professions in healthcare: Medical doctors
Based on the documents on regulated professions that the SEC provided to the MAI in December 2014 and May 20153, and taking into consideration discussions with relevant healthcare
stakeholders, the SEC implemented the following approach:
We cover medical doctors in ESCO in two occupational profiles: specialised doctor and general practitioner. The 54 medical specialisations listed in Directive 2005/36/EC will be covered as 53 optional knowledge concepts within the occupational profile of specialised doctor and as one essential knowledge within the occupational profile of general practitioner. The table below provides an overview of the data in the two occupations.
Occupation specialised doctor general practitioner
Description
Very broad description of the occupation (referring to the Directive on Regulated professions)4
Very broad description of the occupation (referring to the Directive on Regulated professions)
Regulatory aspects
Will inform on the automated recognition through Directive 2005/36/EC and link to the Regulated Professions Database.
Will inform on the automated recognition through Directive 2005/36/EC and link to the Regulated Professions Database.
NACE code 86.22 - Specialist medical practice activities 86.21 – General medical practice activities
ISCO 08 2212 - Specialist medical practitioners 2211 - General medical practitioners
Essential skills
1 KSC 5that is encompassing the scope of practice
and that is very broadly describing the OCC
1 KSC concept: “general medical practice”
Optional skills
Knowledge relevant for 53 medical specialisations (excluding the one relevant for the general practitioner) and some additional optional skills beyond the scope of practice but frequently used by employers (are related to the work context).
KSC6 concepts that are beyond the scope of practice of general
practitioner but are frequently used by employers (and are related to the work context).
With this approach ESCO avoids describing the scope of practice which might be regulated differently in various Member States. It also ensures full alignment with the terminology of Directive 2005/36/EC. With its direct reference to the European database of the regulated professions, ESCO increases transparency on legal requirements and the qualifications needed to access these occupations. Finally, the approach ensures that all medical specialisations are covered and can be used in job matching.
3 Capturing information on regulated professions in ESCO; ESCO (2014) SEC 062 FINAL and Approach towards regulated professions
in ESCO; ESCO (2015)SEC 025 FINAL.
4 The description is currently being revised by the relevant stakeholders.
5 Together with taxonomists, the stakeholders are currently revising this KSC concept
6Together with stakeholders we are investigating to what extent the knowledge concepts for specialized doctors can also be a part
