What is ESCO?

 
After a period of development of just over eight years, the European Commission launched ESCO (European Taxonomy of Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations) in 2018. ESCO is a new platform for the comparability and linking of occupations, competencies and qualifications right across Europe. This article provides a summary of the structure, function and aims of ESCO in its capacity as a new transparency instrument for European VET policy. It also addresses issues relating to a possible impact on governance for national vocational education and training. The article concludes by previewing a new BIBB project which will carry out a comparative analysis of the relevance and function of ESCO for selected EU member states.