The following testimonial is part of a series of interviews conducted by the Commission with ESCO implementers. Their purpose is to shed a light on ESCO strengths and challenges as perceived by implementers, so that current and potential future stakeholders can gain a better knowledge on the use of ESCO.

This testimonial follows a slightly particular format because it speaks to a single project that was carried out by two independent ESCO stakeholders: Regione Emilia-Romagna and ANPAL Servizi S.p.A. This demonstrates how different institutions can use ESCO in various ways while still fostering cooperation and interoperability.

Tell us a bit more about your organisation.

ANPAL Servizi S.p.A. is a joint stock company, whose sole shareholder is the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The company supports ANPAL (National Agency for Employment Policies) and the Ministry of Labour in: designing and implementing active employment policies for job seekers; enhancing measures for the transition from education and training to work; and developing national programs directly promoted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies and reserved for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in the labour market. Other than that, ANPAL Servizi is present in all Italian regions with its own personnel, providing technical support to regional administrations and public employment services in the development of programs for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan reserved for active employment policies (PNRR - Guarantee of Employment Program for Workers) and for the implementation of interventions financed under the FSE plus.

Regione Emilia-Romagna (RER) is a public administration that governs many public policies related to the regional territory of Emilia-Romagna. One of the most important ones is the implementation of Employment and Vocational and Training policies for employed and unemployed citizens looking for new jobs or training opportunities. RER is dedicated to developing interventions targeted at providing VET curriculum that are consistent with the enterprises' demand expressed in the local context. This requires analysing and revising qualifications and requalification of local labour force with skills adapted to current needs.

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

ANPAL Servizi is committed to developing a Skills Intelligence tool to facilitate the meeting between supply and demand for work and provide support for training activities. As part of this activity, a series of projects with the Emilia Romagna region are being conducted to identify the most requested occupations and skills by companies in the fields of Big Data, Circular Economy, and the Fashion Industry. In all three cases, ESCO was adopted to identify not only the most innovative occupations but also to exploit the classification of the essential and optional knowledge and skills. The programs included: a) an analysis of the context and demand; b) identification of occupations based on market demands; c) a series of focus groups with companies and training institutions; d) an extensive survey with samples of companies in the region to verify professional needs, innovative occupations, and necessary skills, selecting from ESCO.

Regione Emilia-Romagna is developing a long-term framework to anticipate local companies' professional and competency-based demands. For this aim the use of the ESCO system has immediately resulted in a fundamental tool to analyse taxonomies and descriptors of occupations in the European labour market. Open access to ESCO content is essential for the construction of a regional system capable of describing to final users the main features of any occupation and to compare them to the professional content and needs expressed by local companies.

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

The main challenges have concerned the selection of key competencies and knowledge for the occupations identified by companies through the survey; and the linkage of occupations and their knowledge/competencies to the Atlante del Lavoro, developed by Inapp, which is adopted in Italy for the programming of training and for the definition of qualifications by regional administrations. This mapping was made possible by moving from the ESCO Occupations to the CP ISTAT 2011 profiles (Classification System adopted by ISTAT) and from there to the Atlante del Lavoro, which classifies profiles by activities, expected results for each occupation.

As previously mentioned, Regione Emilia-Romagna, together with ANPAL, has worked hard to link ESCO descriptors and taxonomies with those used in national classifications of occupations, professional profiles, competences, and skills.

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

The open access to ESCO data is a relevant feature according to both ANPAL servizi and RER, that allows users easily to elaborate and compare data with national and regional classifications. The detailed list of competencies and knowledges for each occupation is extremely useful in order to improve the matching between labour demand and jobseekers, and detailed descriptions let users to understand how specific occupations are described in different European contexts. Furthermore, the classification system for knowledge and skills (essential and optional) allows the identification of training paths for innovative profiles, also considering Green and digital skills.

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

ESCO is widely adopted, particularly in the fields of Green and digital certifications, according to both stakeholders. The Minister has adopted ESCO's Green skills as a reference in the New Competences Fund program to finance continuous training of personnel in companies in the field of Green Jobs. The Emilia Romagna region has also used ESCO data to identify areas for strengthening the regional training offer and their partners have expressed interest in the use of ESCO data for innovative employment and VET policies.

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

The main recommendation for stakeholders to implement ESCO in their country is to align their national classification systems with ESCO (even if it can be a challenging task) and use ESCO to estimate and reduce the skill gap between jobseekers and job vacancies where Anpal Servizi Data Science Department is focusing its efforts.

RER recommends that social partners and all stakeholders in VET policies take part in the design and implementation phase of any project aimed at improving local capacity in forecasting the demand of new skills and competences. This way, all actors involved in the project can use the analysis results to plan new VET and employment policies.

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

ESCO has contributed to the development of skills intelligence activities by defining innovative occupations, particularly in digital and green job fields where national classification systems are incomplete. Anpal Servizi has created an interactive dashboard that allows users to navigate Green Jobs to define the relevance of green skills within the mapped professional profiles.

For Regione Emilia Romagna's VET policy makers, a detailed description of occupations, their competencies, skills, and knowledges is a crucial tool for defining and implementing innovative VET interventions as well as for planning new employment policies, particularly in response to the digital and green transitions (that is often a request from their stakeholders).