ESCO : connecting jobs and people.
Date: 2018-01-05
Institutions: Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Subjects: EURES, classification, data processing, database, information analysis, information network, information technology applications, labour market, new technology, professional qualifications

ESCO connecting  
people and jobs

European Skills,  
Competences,  
Qualifications  
and Occupations

ESCO is the multilingual classification of European Skills, 
Competences, Qualifications and Occupations. 

It identifies and categorises skills, competences, 
qualifications and occupations relevant for the EU  
labour market and education and training, in 26 European 
languages.

ESCO is building a connected European labour market by:

Supporting labour mobility through the EURES job mobility portal

Once ESCO is integrated into EURES (the European job mobility portal), CVs and job 
vacancies within EURES will be interpreted based on a standardised terminology 
covering knowledge, skills, competences and qualifications. The EURES Regulation 
aims to modernise the EURES portal, which will become an up-to-date mobility tool 
that uses the latest IT technologies and can be accessed by everyone. 

Acting as a digital facilitator for the labour market 

ESCO is published in a computer-readable format on the web, under an open license 
that facilitates the reuse of its data (through Linked Open Data). Developers can 
then use it as a building block in applications that provide services such as job 
matching, career guidance and self-assessment tools to citizens.

Improving e-services that match people and jobs 

ESCO helps public and private employment services and employers to develop more 
effective electronic labour market services. ESCO facilitates the development of 
services that match people to jobs or guide them towards employment opportunities 
that best match their skills. This saves them time, reduces costs and increases 
efficiency.

How does ESCO benefit employment  
service providers?   
If you are a recruiter or a provider of employment services, there are four key reasons why  
you should use ESCO in your systems:

To exchange labour market 
information  

ESCO provides a standard terminology that 
can help you to understand the information 
contained in job vacancies, CVs and 
qualifications. This allows labour market 
information to be exchanged easily and  
strong partnerships to develop between 
public and private employment 
services, as well as with education 
and training providers.

To facilitate the design of job 
vacancies and job profiles in 
different languages

ESCO can help you to define the skills, 
competences and qualifications required for the 
jobs you are offering. As ESCO is multilingual, 
you can find these skills, competences and 

qualifications in 26 European languages.

You can also help your clients to 

create professional profiles that 
list the knowledge, skills and 
competences they have 

acquired through formal, 
non-formal or informal 
learning, or work 
experience.

To receive accurate, 
competence-based job 
matching results

ESCO enables IT systems to transform a 
jobseeker’s work experience and qualifications 
into a likely set of skills and competences. 
Based on this, you can more accurately 
and transparently match jobseekers to job 
vacancies or employers to potential recruits.

As ESCO is multilingual, it can support 
competence-based job matching across 
language barriers.

To access continuously 
updated information about  
the labour market

Over time, ESCO will be improved with the 
most in-demand skills and occupations as new 
developments in the labour market and the 
education and training sector emerge. This will 
allow you to access and use the most up-to-date 
information available without extra effort.

…and all of this is completely FREE of CHARGE!

Learn more about ESCO:

https://ec.europa.eu/esco/portal/home

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1042&langId=en

A Europe 2020 initiative

#ESCO_EU

EMPL-ESCO-SECRETARIAT@ec.europa.eu

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2017
© European Union, 2017
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
Printed in Luxembourg

Print
ISBN 978-92-79-72142-7
doi:10.2767/876519
KE-02-17-982-EN-C

PDF
ISBN 978-92-79-72143-4
doi:10.2767/440515
KE-02-17-982-EN-N