This work shows how semantic technologies can improve the practical use of the European e-Competence Framework (e-CF) by linking its competences to relevant skills and knowledge from ESCO.

The e-CF provides a strong structure for describing ICT competences, but each competence currently includes only a few example skills. To address this, the study uses modern text analysis techniques (MPNet embeddings and similarity matching) to identify ESCO skills and knowledge concepts that are closely related to each competence.

As a result, each e-CF competence can be enriched with a broader set of relevant skills and knowledge items (typically 15 to 25 per competence). These come with clear descriptions and multilingual labels, making the competences easier to understand and apply in real-world contexts.

ESCO plays a key role in this process. Its structured, multilingual database of skills (linked to occupations)adds depth and standardisation to the more general competence descriptions of the e-CF. By connecting the two, this work creates a bridge between competence frameworks and labour market terminology. Overall, the results show that ESCO can help make competence frameworks more detailed, easier to use, and better aligned with real-world skills. This supports practical applications such as curriculum design, skills analysis, and job matching.

Read the full study: "NLP and Text Mining for Enriching IT Professional Skills Frameworks"

This article contributes to the broader collection of external ESCO publications, showcasing the use of ESCO within various methodologies or its presentation in both European and International contexts. As ESCO becomes increasingly used in applications and research projects across Europe and beyond, it is valuable to collect such sources and share best practices by diverse stakeholders. Therefore, this collection of external publications strengthens the exchange of knowledge within the ESCO community and can contribute to mutual learning in the field of skills, occupations and qualifications among European and international actors. If you are interested in sharing your publication, please write to EMPL-ESCO-SECRETARIAT@ec.europa.eu