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Through training, coaching, and equality measures, the EU-funded FairPlusService programme, helps women gain qualifications and promotes work–life balance. The initiative is part of the €2.1 billion ESF+ investment in workplace gender equality across the EU.

Get the latest data and insights on employment and social developments in our first Employment and Social Outlook newsletter.

Over €7.5 million from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund will provide career counselling, training, and start-up support to 3400 dismissed Audi workers and 834 workers from Audi’s suppliers.

An EU-funded Housing First project in Brno is providing immediate access to social housing, helping vulnerable people rebuild their lives.

The European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) mid-term evaluation confirms steady progress in supporting jobs, skills development, and social inclusion across the EU between 2021 and 2024.

Estonia has completed a major update of its national skills classification as part of the development of the Skills Registry and the Skills Compass, led by the Estonian Qualifications Authority. Estonia has launched an updated skills system with a clear four-level hierarchy and a national taxonomy aligned to labour-market needs, now available via the public Skills Compass. Built on ESCO but tailored to Estonia, the update links national skills to European standards making it easier for learners, jobseekers and employers to navigate skills at home and across Europe.

2025 has been a strong year for ESCO uptake. The portal welcomed more than 640,000 visitors, the ESCO team held over 40 meetings with stakeholders and implementers, and the ESCO data files have been downloaded 9,000 times across EU and beyond. ESCO list of implementers has been enriched and ESCO also presented at several national and European events, actively promoting its use across different contexts. If you would like to share your own use case with us, we would be happy to meet. Reach out to us via the ESCO Contact page.

To improve usability and support a wider range of implementation needs, the ESCO portal now provides the database in additional download formats: CSV, JSON-LD, ODS, RDF, TTL, and XML. These new options make it easier for developers, analysts and other users to integrate ESCO data directly into different workflows, regardless of the tools or systems they rely on.

The concept of green jobs is receiving attention from both policy and research circles particularly considering the EU goal of climate-neutrality by 2025. The green transition affects the creation and the transformation of jobs in existing and emerging economic sectors. Thereby, one of the challenges is the identification of green jobs or occupations. ESCO has contributed to addressing this need by measuring the green shares of occupations based on their related ESCO green skills. The green share occupations file is now available for download with ESCO v1.2.1.

The official mapping between ESCO and NACE has been published. This new crosswalk can be used to enhance labour market insights, supports sector-based analytics, and improve interoperability across European statistical and semantic systems. The mapping helps stakeholders better understand occupational demand, design targeted training programmes and develop industry-specific upskilling strategies. Learn more in the technical report and the NACE crosswalk table.

ESCO v1.2.1 is a minor update focused on translation and quality improvements across the classification. This version does not include the change in number of concepts of the ESCO classification. Key updates include improvements in translations across all ESCO languages, removal of duplicate labels, refined links between occupations and skills and an aligned revision of green skill–occupation relationships. ESCO also introduces new alternative labels in English and other ESCO languages to support more accurate use of the taxonomy.

Welcome to the December 2025 edition of the ESCO Newsletter. As we conclude the final month of the year, this issue provides an overview of recent activities, developments and achievements. In this edition, as a highlight you will find information on the new ESCO minor version, summary of key news and events that have brought together stakeholders from across Europe.

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New members

10th EAfA-ETF Seminar celebrates a decade of apprenticeship excellence

New report: Engaging stakeholders and quality assurance are key to delivering on the potential of micro-credentials

New report: Engaging stakeholders and quality assurance are key to delivering on the potential of micro-credentials