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 Additional Documentation 

1. 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. The work of the expert group has been instrumental for the publication of ESCO v1.2 and the further development of the classification. Moreover, the group provided a valuable forum to promote the uptake of ESCO by national employment services. The Commission has therefore decided to extend the mandate of the group until 2030.

2. 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 the Commission with expertise concerning the continuous updating, improvement, management and quality assurance of the ESCO classification.
• to support the Commission in the preparation of the next versions of ESCO, 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, and other future legislative initiatives including the EU Talent Pool, once adopted by the co-legislators.
• to cooperate, whether possible and appropriate, and establish synergies with other expert groups involved in the Union of Skills Initiative, including the future High-Level Board on Skills.

3. Working methods

The Commission schedules the meetings whenever required, at least once a year, virtually or in Brussels. 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.

4. History

4.1 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
• 26th ESCO MSWG meeting, hybrid (Brussels and online), 25 November 2024
• 27th ESCO MSWG meeting, Brussels, 14 March 2025
• 28th ESCO MSWG meeting, (focus meeting), online, 30 June 2025.

4.2 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

5. Composition

The group should be composed of the competent authorities from the Member States. Each Member State shall appoint two national experts as representatives of the group. Members’ representatives 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 International Standard Classification of Occupation (ISCO), Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE), European Qualifications Framework (EQF), International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED).
• National classification systems.
• Skills certification systems, job matching mechanisms and other labour mobility instruments.

6. Additional documentation

• ESCO Member States Working Group 2025 -Terms of reference
• The ESCO Member States Working Group in the Transparency Register of the Commission