Project no.
FP6-028987
Project acronym
EurOccupations
Project title
Developing a detailed 7-country occupations database
forcomparative socio-economic research in the European Union
Instrument:
STREP
Thematic Priority
PRIORITY 7, Research Area 3.2.2.
International
workshops
Second Reporting Period – D15-D22
Project coordinator name:
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Start date of the project:
from 01.05.2006 to 30.04.09 (36 months)
Period covered:
from 01.05.07 to 30.04.08
Report Preparation Date:
27.04.2007
Author of this report:
EurOccupations project team
EurOccupations
Summarizing reports on the
findings of the expert sessions for
occupations in all clusters
Deliverable 15-22
Developing a detailed 8-country occupations
database for comparative socio-economic
research in the European Union
In the project EurOccupations, 10 European universities and
research institutes are developing an occupations database,
including information on approximately 1500 – 2000
occupations in a variety of industries (from care & welfare to
technology & manufacturing, from service occupations to
agriculture & fishing).
This project aims to build a publicly available database with the
1,500 - 2,000 most frequent occupations in 8 large EU member
states (United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Poland,
Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy).
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1.
Introduction
1.1
Introduction of the EurOccupations project
How do occupations compare across countries? How can problems of incomparability of
occupations be tackled? To answer these questions, 10 European universities and research
institutes have joined their efforts to develop a European occupations database.
The EU funded project ‘EurOccupations’ aims to build a publicly available occupations
database with approximately 1,500 most frequent occupations in 8 large EU member
states (United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and
Italy). The occupations cover the whole range of industries: varying from care & welfare to
technology & manufacturing, from service occupations to agriculture & fishing, etc.
For all 1,500 occupations, the EurOccupations database includes occupational titles, ISCOcodes and educational levels. In addition, the database will contain information about
distribution of gender, education and age groups in each country for aggregate groups of
occupations.
Expert research
For a selection of 160 key occupations, the EurOccupations database additionally includes
information on skill levels, occupational content, occupational requirements and relevant
social stratification measures. The information for these occupational dimensions is
gathered through an expert research, in which occupational experts are asked to judge
occupations of their expertise on these dimensions by means of an Internet survey.
Expert definition:
Experts are expected to have knowledge about occupations or groups of occupations within
the countries involved in EurOccupations.
Experts are: representatives of employers’ or employees’ organisations, professional
organisations, interest groups, vocational training bodies or knowledge centres,
supervisors, researchers in the field of occupations (either from universities or from
statistical offices), informants from a wide variety of branches of industry, vocational
advisors, HRD professionals etc.
In addition: occupational workers survey
Additionally, occupational workers are also asked to complete an Internet survey for these
160 key occupations. This so called ‘occupational worker survey’ includes questions that
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can be answered by practitioners and focuses on the actual education levels of
occupational workers (and how these relate to occupational requirements).
Clusters of occupations
In order to structure and streamline the development of the EurOccupations database, the
occupation database is organised along the lines of eight clusters of occupations. The
clusters of occupations are divided as follows:
Table 1 Overview of the division of 8 clusters of occupations
Cluster title
1. Care & welfare
2. Construction & cars
3. Education, research & personnel
4. Information, communication, finance & legal
5. Manufacturing: food, metal, oil, gas & mining
6. Clerks, staff, management & army/police
7. Trade & agriculture
8. Transport, logistics, travel & cleaning/garbage
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Report on the care and welfare cluster expert session
Meeting leader: Marc van der Meer (Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies)
Meeting assistant: Barbora Brngálová (Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies)
Meeting attendees:
Harry Ganzeboom
Annelies Bannink
Ana Franco
Sylvie-Anne Mériot
Isabelle Dauvillier-De Cherancé
Jeremy Torterat
Vic Cittarella
Amparo Badiola
Bohdan Szuszkiewicz
Esteban Villarejo
Geert Loosveld
Agenda:
The topic of the expert session on health care was the occupational development in various
mutually connected health care professions in eight European countries. In the meeting a
power point presentation was provided. The expert session focused on three connected
issues:
-
1. An important part of the discussion was spent on the issue of the job territories
and occupational demarcations in order to understand the practical meaning of the
overlap between caring, nursing, and medical occupations.
-
2. A related discussion highlighted the division of labour and task separation of
health care jobs in response to budget control and retrenchment.
-
3. Finally we discussed the socialization of people on the job: when is someone
considered a as adult craftsperson in the transition of training the labour market?
List of topics/questions/problems discussed
-
The questionnaire was considered being too long and some review was suggested
to potentially drop less important questions.
-
(some) Questions were perceived too complex and difficult to answer.
-
Questions were asked about what is the reason of the Netherlands being the clear
positive outlier in the number of responses to the enquiry. An active recruitment of
experts seems the explanation for this achievement.
-
How many occupations could one expert evaluate? Some attendants argued that
one expert should be able to compare various occupations.
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-
Questions were raised about the distinction between the names of occupations, e.g.
personal carer being an occupation, and the job specification e.g. working with the
elderly or at home.
-
The word “handicapped” is considered to be offensive in the UK -> could there be
a change into e.g. disabled or physically challenged?
-
Some professions from the care and welfare key list do not exist in certain
countries, e.g. in France dental hygienist and physician assistants do no exist (yet).
-
Also in some countries patients are patients and not (yet) customers or clients.
-
As far as the nursing professions are concerned, there are job titles problems (no
occupations); there is heterogeneity not only between countries, but also within
countries.
-
Charge nurse profession is becoming a more managerial one in some countries.
-
Hospital nurse case had more coherence in responses in comparison with the
charge nurse profession.
-
Nursing aid had high level of heterogeneity and low respond rate.
-
Perhaps there is arbitration in the task system/ranking and one should go back to
original databases and work with the underlying data.
-
There is a high variety in responses and substantial no answer rate to some
questions.
-
In the Netherlands medium level jobs have professional profiles written by
employers and employees’ organizations, but one can get different responses and
they are difficult to evaluate. Nurses can have high and also medium educational
level background; the career ladder is getting extended.
-
Nurse practitioner versus physician assistant -> where to draw the line?
-
In France there is a “code of acts” in place about what can a medical profession do;
the connection also with education is difficult and (maybe) not needed in the
questionnaire
-
In the UK there are published occupation standards.
-
The aim should be internal mobility.
-
The 21 occupations should be consistently ranked against Q20 and Q21.
-
Educational section makes the questionnaire multidimensional.
-
Ethnic dimension: muslim/ islam population is not entering these jobs
Summary and concluding issues of the care and welfare workshop:
-
Limit the web-inquiry to 10 minutes, and allow experts for the extended
questionnaire on a voluntary basis;
-
Work with at least two experts for the evaluation of several occupations;
-
Take into consideration the EU directive 2005/36;
-
Pay attention to definition of data -> occupation versus job;
-
Expert(s) should have a look at the desk research work/outcomes;
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-
The Polish terminology used in the inquiry should be corrected;
-
Use the original sources in the national occupational classification outlines when
drafting the final report.
MvdM/BB.
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Report of the construction expert session
Organised by Judith de Ruijter and Anne Ribbert (Arbeid Opleidingen Consult, Tilburg, the
Netherlands) in cooperation with Stan Schoenmakers and Inge Dekkers (BGA Nederland,
Boxtel, the Netherlands)
The construction session consisted of two parts. The first part of the session focussed on
the obtained transparency in occupational content and requirements for the roofer. In this
part, findings from the EurOccupations initiative for the roofer occupation as well as the
EUR-Active Roofer project were presented and discussed.
Developments in the roofer occupation within Europe, for example the use of
alternative sources of energy by means of installing solar panels on roofs, have broadened
and upgraded the roofer occupation in several European countries. Relevant professional
organisations in 13 European countries have cooperated in the project EUR-active roofer
and came to agreement regarding content, occupational competencies and requirements
for this occupation. The good example of the EUR-active roofer proves that it is in fact
possible to obtain transparency and agreement on occupational boundaries, requirements
and content by linking this to relevant developments in the field of work. In order to obtain
this transparency, it is of crucial importance that relevant organisations work together on a
European level.
In the second part of the session, we discussed how the obtained transparency in
occupational content and requirements can be utilised to introduce Skill Cards in the field
of construction. Some good examples of successfully implemented Skill Cards initiatives
were presented, namely the European EMU-pass for the metal industry and the
Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) for the construction industry in the UK.
The EMU-pass serves as a personal badge reflecting a worker’s experience and
professional skills and competencies within a practical, multi-lingual format. The EMU-pass
describes the skill level of employees on quite a detailed level. It is used by approximately
1500 employers and is not obligatory. Subsequently, the CSCS for the construction sector
in the UK was presented. There are currently 1,25 million of these skill cards in use in the
UK, mainly within larger companies. The cards are validated on a national level and
indicate the general skill levels of employees by a colour code (with a spectrum varying
from yellow and green indicating little expertise to gold and platinum cards for supervisors
or management respectively).
After the presentations of these two good examples, we discussed the possible
benefits and pitfalls of introducing Skill Cards around five statements. In the discussion,
the participants concluded that Skill Cards are a good initiative to improve the quality of
workforce and to facilitate labour migration within the European Union, if there is sufficient
transparency regarding occupational content and demands on the European level. In that
case, both employers and employees can profit from Skill Cards. However, in order to
make the introduction of skill cards successful, several conditions have to be met. These
are, among others, the status of Skill Cards (obligatory), the inclusion of different levels of
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skill and competence and a reliable and valid measurement of both technical skills and soft
skills.
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Report of the manufacturing, food, metal oil, gas and mining
session, May 22 2008, MARSEILLE
The expert session of the cluster ‘manufacturing, food, metal, oil, gas and mining”
was organised by Department of Labour and Social Policy, Poznan University of Economics
(project partner EurOccupations, Poland).
The session focussed on three aspects:
1.
manufacturing cluster – introduction
2.
experts’ recruitment – finding the ways to encourage experts to participate in the
project
3.
changes in skill requirement and the occupations (with special attention paid to
“sewer”)
The session was divided into two parts: presentation of the research results, (by Poznan
University of Economics) and discussion on the subjects.
The experts recruitment;
the experts present at the sessions turn attention to few important and useful points:
- when it comes to tasks fulfilled in manufacturing it could be useful to base
on process sheets,
- good source of expertise are large employers,
- the issue which should be faced in the coming weeks of the study; there is
a substantial variation in tasks and their meaning determined by size of the
department (employer),
- the study needs to be more “legitimatised’
- the information on experts can be found in labour force surveys.
The question faced by study like EurOccupations; are the occupations changing or
are they expected to disappear? The technological changes proved to modify the skills
requirements, tasks fulfilled, way of fulfilling them so dramatically that it is difficult to
decide if being for example “sewer” means the same as 10 years ago and will mean the
same in 10 years period. Although the trends may be different in different countries, due
to different: demand for highly and medium skilled, level of technological input and losses
offset by replacement demand. The available data suggest that many manufacturing and
manufacturing-related occupations are expected to decline in coming years. Experts paid
attention to the fact of limited cross-country comparability of the data collected from
limited number of experts.
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Report of expert session cluster Transport, logistics, travel & cleaning/garbage
May 21, 2008 Marseille
The expert session of the cluster ‘transport, logistics, travel & cleaning/garbage’ was
organised by AO Consult (project partner EurOccupations, the Netherlands) and VTL
(knowledge centre in transport and logistics, the Netherlands). The session focussed on
the key occupation ‘international truck driver’. The session consisted of two parts;
1. Presentation (by AO Consult) and discussion of the preliminary findings of the
EurOccupations expert research for the cluster ‘transport, logistics, travel &
cleaning/garbage’ and, in particular, the key occupation ‘international truck driver’;
2. Presentation (by VTL) and discussion of the content, implementation and
consequences of the new European-level directive 2003/59/EC for truck drivers.
1.
Preliminary findings of the EurOccupations expert research
During the first part of the session, the preliminary findings of the EurOccupations expert
survey were presented. The response rates of the expert research for the key occupations
in the cluster ‘transport, logistics, travel & cleaning/garbage’ were presented, as well as
the results of the web inquiry for the key occupation ‘international truck driver’.
The expert data showed much agreement among the experts. Regarding the
frequency of some tasks, however, the data reveal interesting differences between experts.
For instance, experts disagree about the frequency of the following tasks:
-
Prepare the delivery of the cargo, e.g. by planning the most appropriate route and
calculating driving and resting hours.
-
Load and unload cargo if required (e.g. by using a forklift) and secure it for
transport (e.g. by using ropes, blocks and chains).
During the discussion, the participating experts suggested that these differences could well
be due to differences in tasks performed by truck drivers due to the type of load they
transport, the type of truck they drive and the size of the organisation they work for.
2.
European-level directive 2003/59/EC for truck drivers
In the second part of the session, we focussed in on the new European directive for truck
drivers. In 2003, Directive 2003/59/EC was introduced by the European Union. This
directive’s aim is to enhance and harmonise the quality of the profession in Europe by
regulating (1) the initial qualification, and (2) periodic training of professional drivers. As a
consequence of this new European legislation, all truck drivers in the EU have to meet
minimum ability standards and keep them up to date.
The main results of the discussion, which revolved around a number of statements, are:
-
The new directive is a win-win situation for the transport sector; both employers
and employees benefit from it. The directive improves the quality and image of the
truck driver occupation and has indeed led to more harmonisation in Europe.
-
Differences in (the quality of) training and examination programs between
countries remain. Harmonisation has occurred to some extent, but more time and
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effort is needed to achieve harmonisation. Level-playing field can be achieved in
the long term, but it definitely is not an illusion.
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Report of the clerks, staff and management expert session
Conference Programme Note for the Expert Session
This session was organised by Peter Elias, Margaret Birch and Ritva Ellison of the
University of Warwick (IER) (United Kingdom). This session addressed the issue of
heterogeneity in the occupational cluster. The discussion focussed on the 'Clerks,
secretaries, post, telephone' area of the cluster. Topics for discussion were:
-
A review of the variety of skill levels in this cluster – what problems does this pose for
cross-national comparability; are different definitions used in different settings?
-
How to recognise skill levels from the job title
-
Treatment of these occupations in ISCO and national occupational classifications
-
Variations in educational requirements and occupational tasks.
Presentations
Nominated experts were invited in advance of the Conference to prepare a short
presentation addressing the issues specified in the Programme note as shown above,
relating these to their particular experience at national and/or international level. These
formed the basis of wider discussion during the expert session.
Appended to this note are PowerPoint presentations by:
- Ben Hickman (Local Government Association, UK);
- Paul Dorsemagen (Ecabo, Netherlands);
- Bazyli Gowacki (BG – Consulting, Poland);
- Victoria Embid (FES-UGT, Spain).
Summary of Main Findings
(See also the PowerPoint presentation appended.)

Occupations in this cluster are characterised by a high degree of heterogeneity, both
within and between occupations: for example, a Cashier might simply operate a till to
receive and pay out money, or the same title might be applied to someone carrying
out relatively complex tasks within an organisation’s accounts department (similar to
the work of an ‘accounts manager’); secretarial occupations range from those
providing high level support to managerial staff across a broad spectrum of activities
and involving a complex set of responsibilities (‘Executive Secretary’ or ‘Personal
Assistant’), to a ‘General Secretary’ whose principal task is word-processing or typing.
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
A key feature emerging from the presentations and subsequent discussion is the
impact of organisational and technological change on the content of jobs in this cluster,
particularly for clerical and related occupations, leading to extensive multi-tasking and
the very widespread use of ICT. Some occupations have changed or are disappearing,
e.g. ‘Filing clerks’ are doing database management and ‘Typists’ as such hardly exist
any more. Change is also driven by the fact that employers are able to take
advantage of the availability of more qualified people that in turn can affect job
content.

Whilst overskilling (highly qualified people taking jobs with lower level entry
requirements) is evident in clerical occupations in particular, it continues to be the
case that, despite widespread and increasing professionalisation, experience rather
than qualification is a feature of managerial occupations.

There is a trend of increasing outsourcing of clerical occupations. For example, the
occupations ‘Post sorting/distributing clerk’, ‘Receptionist’ and ‘Security guard’ may be
combined and the service outsourced.

The concept of work outputs, rather than simply work inputs, in defining job tasks was
considered. For example, the tasks involved in a secretarial occupation might be
defined in terms of levels of pro-activity or autonomy required to be exercised by the
jobholder, in addition to such tasks as filing and diary-keeping. In this context,
combining skill level, tasks and training requirements to define occupations was seen
as highly relevant.
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Report of the trade & agriculture expert session
Conference Programme Note for the Expert Session
This session was organised by Peter Elias, Margaret Birch and Ritva Ellison of the
University of Warwick (IER) (United Kingdom). A case study approach was adopted to
three occupations in this cluster. The selection of the occupations reflects the diversity
within the cluster. The occupations chosen range from what appears to be quite specific
(hairdressing) to the more diverse in terms of the North/South and East/west divide in
Europe (farming). The three case study occupations were:
-
Hairdresser (qualifications, skill, training, licensing procedures)
-
Horse riding instructor (job content, educational requirements, health and safety)
-
Farmers and farming occupations across the EU (which relates to the key
occupations: Field crop or vegetable grower, Mixed crop farm manager) relating
the occupational tasks to management structure, family business versus
agribusiness, etc.
The concluding discussion related to the comparability of these occupations at European
level.
Presentations
Nominated experts were invited in advance of the Conference to prepare a short
presentation to form the basis of wider discussion by selecting one or more of the
occupations listed in the Programme note (shown above) to address the issues indicated,
relating these to their experience at national and/or international level.
Appended to this note are PowerPoint presentations by:
- Margaret Birch (IER, UK);
- Lisan van den Beukel and Julius de Zeeuw (CWI, Netherlands);
- Mandy Keen (ONS, UK);
- Derek Hartshorne (Lantra, UK).
Summary of Main Findings
(See also the PowerPoint presentation appended.)

Two presentations looked at the occupation of hairdresser, focusing on the situation in
the UK and Netherlands within a broader European context. Status in employment
emerged as a significant issue, with many hairdressing establishments using selfemployed hairdressers (who each rent space in a salon), rather than operating via an
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employer/employee relationship. Increasing accreditation and an emphasis on moving
towards integration of standards within Europe also featured in this occupation,
although licensing arrangements remained varied across countries.
Skill specialisation in this occupation had become much more varied. For example,
many hairdressers now had both female and male clients (and the trend was towards
fewer male-only barbers).

From a comprehensive examination of the occupation of horse riding instructor in the
UK, common elements with the occupation of hairdresser were apparent, relating to
increasing accreditation and status in employment. Whilst some degree level
qualifications for horse riding instructors are now available, there is no minimum entry
qualification to the occupation; there are, however, age barriers to becoming a
qualified instructor at various levels.

A presentation outlined the work of Lantra (the UK Sector Skills Council for agriculture
and related industries), focusing particularly on the very detailed job descriptions/task
lists they have produced for the sector and demonstrating the Online Competence
Framework (OCF).
This web-based tool is designed to serve the needs of workers,
employers, trainers and educators in the sector in the UK. It is being adopted and
adapted by other Sector Skills Councils in the UK. Attention was also drawn to the
Agripass, which will aid cross-national mobility, and to other European initiatives
defining occupations in which Lantra were involved or about which they were aware.
It was clear that such information sources as Lantra’s database of detailed job
descriptions and task lists were of considerable potential value to the EurOccupations
project.
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Report of the education, research and personnel expert session
This session was organised by Esteban Villarejo and Oriol Homs of CIREM (Spain). Before
any proposal, the participants were asked about their initial points of view. It was
expressed a certain preoccupation about the empirical basis of the occupational types.
After that, te coordinator of the cluster was presenting several doubtful points and
hypothesis, and they were debated. The first great point was the influence of cultural,
political and administrative criteria, mainly in the fields of Education and Research. That
factors provoke a remarkable diversity in certain occupations among different countries.
For example: in certain occupations of Education, must we consider the directive functions
as highly different from the educational ones, or must we understand those as essentially
part of these? The situation differ something between different countries. For example,
among the occupational types that we have chosen there is the ‘Post-secondary education
teacher’. In any educational systems it is very stumped.
A second great point was that Education, Research and Personnel seems include more
professions than simple occupations. Are the first reductible to the seconds, or the
occupation is additional and ulterior to the profession? There are some cases of two kinds.
Other professions are of second kind, but also include an occupation very general that
keeps the name of the profession (as ‘psychologist’). In other cases, a profession has two
occupational dimensions, as the ‘researcher’ one.
There was very much agreement about the convenience of recognize more occupational
extent to a profession as ‘psychologist’. And it seems that ‘researcher’ can be considered
as a profession that includes “university researcher’.
The third great point mainly affects the area of human resources. It concerns certain
effects of technological innovation, that ask for changes of organisational order. For
example, at the area of Human Resources, it seems justified the profile of human
resources manager. At lower occupational levels, it seems convenient identify the profile of
the technician (or medium-high professional'), and that of the clerk. There are some facts
that affects the two profiles. For example, the information technologies have led to
integrate many tasks that before demanded a great administrative work, and have made
so easy the execution that they can be carried out by clerks or by technicians.
The technological factor has also eliminated occupations like payroll clerks or other
differentiated functions. In the companies of certain volume there are some clerks
specialized in human resources, but not in functions so specific as payrolls.
Finally there are some inadequacies of translation.
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Report of the information, communication, finance and legal expert session
MAIN QUESTIONS
•
Often heard statement: the importance of skills/general competences is taking
over from the importance of professional and/or formal education, CERTAINLY in
service or commercially oriented sectors
•
Do we find support for this assumption in the data?
•
What are the implications for education and/or recruitment practices?
HYPOTHESES
•
If our assumption is true, we expect:
–
–
a high(er) level of educational mismatch in this cluster
that some broad (or sector and not occupationspecific) skills would be
more important
–
that ‘professional’ (defined as related to competences tought through
formal education leading towards an occupation) competences would be
less important in this cluster
•
One explanation for a higher importance of general over specific skills could be a
stronger presence of teamwork in this cluster, which requires more of the former
sort of skills
CONCLUSIONS
•
Hypotheses are on the whole being confirmed by the Euroccupations data
•
Notwithstanding the low response rates, the data gain some legitimacy by the
analyses at cluster level. The clearly lower levels of importance of competences
like networking and innovative workbehaviour in the clusters of the traditional
industrial sectors (manufacturing and contsruction), support observations made in
a lot of other research, meaning that the data do tap an existing reality somehow
already.
•
BUT: (a) does this support the vision of our experts, and (b) can we speak of a
trend? AND: Are there other observations the experts make based on these results?
From the discussion in the expert session it became clear that the experts present
support the idea that the statement on the increasing importance of (general)
skills/competences over formal education is very relevant for this cluster.
The experts are not completely surprised by the lower level of educational match in
this cluster, compared to others, since they agreed on the hypothesis that led to it.
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The question is raised whether it really has to do with educational mismatch, or could
it be the result of the rapid changes in the IT-sector, which make that sometimes
education does not yet exist for a fast developing new occupation (e.g. as was the
case for designer some years ago). The researchers answers that the questioning is
not really compatible with this view, since the question asks about the accordance of
the level of education of the person with the required level of education for the
occupation. This is something else than not having the exact education for the
occupation.
The experts also think that the presented results are very interesting. But they are
surprised by the low importnace of the innovative working behaviour competence.
Certainly for the IT-sector this seems very counterintuitive. But some experts remark
that the discussion on what innovation exactly is, is a broad and complex discussion.
A suggestion is made by the experts to keep an eye on the link between teamwork,
the use of iT(c) and innovative working behaviour more closely. The researchers now
only presented the level of teamwork as a possible indication for the need for
innovation competences. The experts suggest correlations could be calculated.
Researchers answer that both questions are from different databases (competences
from the expert inquiry, teamwork question from the occupational worker inquiry). But
their could be a possibility, when there are more data, to search for tasks in the task
profiles that suggest teamwork, and then correlate with the competences. A good
suggestion.
Another remark by the experts is that it’s important not to let certain occupations
‘dominate’ the results for a cluster. The researchers think about introducing a weighing
factor if this risk would occur in the final analyses. Vut the experts favor the
clusterbased approach of the analyses, as a complement to the future analyses on the
level of occupations.
As a general conclusion, the experts see the potential of the database, and look
forward to the final analyses. The researchers from their part are thankful for the
useful and interesting discussion with the experts.
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