The following testimonial is part of a series of interviews conducted by the ESCO Secretariat with ESCO implementers.  Their purpose is to shed light on ESCO strengths and challenges as perceived by implementers so that current and potential future stakeholders can gain better knowledge on the use of ESCO. In this testimonial, we discuss how BBVA research is leveraging ESCO.  

Tell us a bit more about your project/company/organisation, your goal, target customers, how many clients/users you currently have, geographical coverage, etc.

Formerly known as Servicio de Estudios (Research Service), BBVA Research was established in 1932. Its mission is to stimulate public debate and advance societal understanding in fields like Economics, Banking, Digitalisation, Sustainability, and Geostrategy. Today, BBVA Research is a leading global institution in economic research and analysis, operating across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. It produces reports and forecasts through a team of 100+ analysts based in 10 countries, driving insights on critical global trends. 

How do you leverage ESCO in your services and since when are you using it? 

We leverage the ESCO taxonomy to conduct competency-based occupational economic analyses, enabling comprehensive tracking of trends like digitalisation and sustainability. In our recent study “Green Skills: What They Are, Who Holds Them, and Why They Matter” we applied ESCO’s green skills framework to: 1) Assess green skill prevalence in Spain’s workforce vs. Europe (see Figure below),  2) Identify socio-demographic and employment profiles of workers with green skills (or gaps), and 3) Evaluate skill definitions’ alignment with decarbonisation goals.

                                                                                                 EU-27: GREEN INTENSITY 
                                                                                                        (%, 2015 - 2023)

                                                                       Source: BBVA Research based on CE (ESCO) and Eurostat.

What were some of the challenges you encountered in implementing ESCO?

Frequent taxonomy revisions pose challenges for backward temporal analysis, as shifting definitions create ambiguity about which framework to apply Cedefop’s (2012) definition of green skills -“knowledge, abilities, values, and attitudes needed to operate in environmentally sustainable economies”- can be considered broad. This leads ESCO to link green skills to primary sector occupations, potentially skewing results due to sector-specific employment trends. These factors can make it more complex  to accurately assess workforce alignment with decarbonisation goals. 

What is the key ingredient in ESCO that made you take the decision to use it in your system?

We chose ESCO as it is a verified standard and regularly updated framework. Its Green Skills taxonomy, tailored to Europe’s workforce and provided a more specific and up-to-date structure for our analysis compared to alternative solutions such as the ONET dataset. This enabled calculating green intensities per occupation (green skills as % of total skills) using 3-digit ISCO-08 codes (aligned with Labour Force Surveys), ensuring granular, occupation-specific sustainability competency analysis. 

What was the level of acceptance by your partners/other national stakeholders?

Our work has been positively received, effectively fulfilling our mission to stimulate public debate and advance societal understanding of sustainability and the net-zero transition. Beyond publishing findings on our website, the study was presented at Spain’s “Quarterly Labour Market Observatory” -a collaborative initiative with Sagardoy Abogados, BBVA Research, and Fedea. This platform publishes independent analyses every three months to track labour market trends, reinforcing data-driven dialogue on Spain’s workforce evolution. 

What are some of your recommendations for other stakeholders looking to implement ESCO in their system?

Using the ESCO taxonomy requires technical precision and attention to detail, as its analytical potential depends on precise execution to have actionable insights. We encourage scholars and researchers to continue leveraging ESCO, particularly its green taxonomy.

How has ESCO helped your business/organisation? What are its advantages and disadvantages from your standpoint?

As noted earlier, combining ESCO’s green taxonomy with Spain’s Labour Force Survey allowed us to analyse green skill evolution nationwide and across subgroups, regions, and sociodemographic. ESCO’s strength lies in its granularity, enabling precise, micro-level labour market analysis,. A limitation is the taxonomy’s need for refined green definitions or subgroups to improve result clarity -an issue we addressed by proposing intuitive frameworks to create subgroups and enhance relevance (see Figure below).