ESCO Member States Working Group

The ESCO Member States Working Group (MSWG) is composed by representatives of Member States’ authorities and its aim is to support the development and implementation of ESCO, including its links with the updated EURES regulation.

Content

1 Objectives
2 Role and responsibilities
3 Working methods
4 History
- 4.1 Meetings
- 4.2 Webinars on targeted topics
5 Composition
6 Links

Objectives

The main objective of the MSWG is to advise and support the Commission on the implementation and development of ESCO and ensure its interoperability with the national classification systems on employment.

The Commission has decided to set up a new informal expert group to support the Commission from 2022 to 2025 (or until the next major version of ESCO is released) in the further development of ESCO.

Role and responsibilities

to act as consultation and information forum on ESCO between Commission, Member States' authorities and European social partners and to stimulate the uptake of ESCO in the labour market and in education at national level.
to provide expertise concerning the continuous updating, improvement, management and quality assurance of the ESCO classification.
The group will also cooperate with other European Union working groups whose remit includes policy management of topics related to EU skills and qualifications, such as the EURES Coordination Group (ECG), the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) Advisory Group or the Europass Advisory Group.
to support the Commission in the preparation of the next version of ESCO classification (ESCO v.1.2), and provide terminological and linguistic feedback.
to identify relevant data sources supporting the continuous improvement and the evolution of ESCO.
to assist the Commission in the implementation of ESCO related projects at national level and the continuous quality improvement of ESCO, including its fitness-for-purpose in various use cases and its interoperability with related national classification systems.
to support the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2016/589 of the European Parliament and the Council on a European Network of Employment Services, workers' access to mobility services and the further integration of labour markets (EURES) and its ESCO related implementing acts.

Working methods

The Commission schedules the meetings whenever required, at least once a year, virtually or in Brussels as a general rule. Meetings of the MSWG are held in English. Results of the meetings are documented in minutes and published on the ESCO Portal.

The Commission can set up sub-groups for the purpose of examining specific questions on the basis of defined terms of reference. The sub-groups shall operate in compliance with the horizontal rules and shall report to the group. They shall be dissolved as soon as their mandate is fulfilled. The chair may also invite experts with specific expertise with respect to a subject matter on the agenda to take part in the work of the group or sub-groups on an ad hoc basis. Additionally, organisations, candidate countries, EEA countries, or public entities other than Member States’ authorities may be granted an observer status, particularly European social partners on cross-industry level on employment and education and training affairs, in compliance with the horizontal rules, by direct invitation.

History

Meetings

1st ESCO MSWG meeting, Brussels, 6 November 2015
2nd ESCO MSWG meeting, Brussels, 26 April 2016
3rd ESCO MSWG meeting, Brussels, 12 December 2016
4th ESCO MSWG meeting, Brussels, 23 June 2017
5th ESCO MSWG meeting, Brussels, 13 November 2017
6th ESCO MSWG meeting, Brussels, 21 February 2018
7th ESCO MSWG meeting, Brussels (Webinar), 18 June 2018
8th ESCO MSWG meeting, Brussels, 22 October 2018
9th ESCO MSWG meeting, Brussels, 7 February 2019
10th ESCO MSWG meeting, Brussels, 8 October 2019
11th ESCO MSWG meeting, Brussels, 19 February 2020
Joint ESCO MSWG/MAI meeting, Brussels, 2 October 2020
13th ESCO MSWG meeting, Brussels, 19 November 2020
14th ESCO MSWG meeting, Brussels, 10 June 2021
15th ESCO MSWG meeting, 36th ESCO MAI meeting, Brussels, 29 November 2021
16th ESCO MSWG meeting, online, 15 June 2022
17th ESCO MSWG meeting (focus meeting), online, 14 September 2022
18th ESCO MSWG meeting (focus meeting), online, 10 November 2022
19th ESCO MSWG meeting, online, 8 December 2022
20th ESCO MSWG meeting, Brussels, 15 March 2023
21st ESCO MSWG meeting (focus meeting), online, 6 June 2023
22nd ESCO MSWG meeting, (focus meeting), online, 6 September 2023
23rd ESCO MSWG meeting, hybrid (Brussels and online), 10 November 2023
24th ESCO MSWG meeting, Brussels, 18 March 2024
25th ESCO MSWG meeting , (focus meeting), online, 24 September 2024

Webinars on targeted topics

Webinar on the results of the first phase of the consultation to the Member States, 27 September 2016
Webinar on the consultation results of the linguistic versions of the ESCO Occupations pillar (v1 pre-release), 25 April 2017
1st Training Webinar on mapping to ESCO, 9 November 2018

Composition

The group is composed of representatives from the Member States. Each member shall appoint one national expert as a representative of the group. Members of the group should have experience and knowledge in some or all of the following fields:

Development, management, dissemination or usage of taxonomies, metadata, controlled vocabularies and/or classification systems;
Terminologies used in the labour market, education or training, in particular related to occupations, competences, qualifications and learning outcomes;
European/international standards, frameworks or classifications used in the labour market, education or training, such as ISCO, NACE, EQF, e-Competence Framework, ISCED, etc;
National classification systems

The European Commission has also issued a call for observers to the ESCO Member States Working Group, who must have experience in the field of managing taxonomies and can provide expertise and participate in discussions, but do not have voting rights (read more about the observers role here).