The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) published the first results of its new labour-market intelligence and skills tool.
Online Job Vacancy (OJV) platforms provide real-time labour market and skills-in-demand information. Given that “65% of children entering primary school today may end up working in completely new types of job that do not yet exist” (Cedefop, 2019), OJV’s data is policy-relevant intelligence for training providers and programmes, as well as for employers, citizens and policy-makers. Against this background, Cedefop presents the results of its real-time labour market information project i.e. the Skills Online Vacancy Analysis Tool for Europe (Skills OVATE). Building on thorough data extraction from a set of online sources e.g. private job portals, public and private employment services and online newspapers, the skills OVATE follows the European skills, competences, qualification and occupations (ESCO) taxonomy. The tool allows for an in-depth look into offered jobs and the skills employers request through seven datasets i.e. ‘online job vacancies providers’, ‘countries and occupation’, ‘regions and occupations’, ‘breakdown by occupation’, ‘skills and occupations’, ‘most requested skills’, ‘skill-sets in occupation’. As for now, the skills OVATE comprises data from seven countries – the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Ireland -, but will cover the EU28 by the end of 2019 and become fully operational by the end of 2020. Indeed, this second release of results – Cedefop shared initial insights in March 2019 – aims at demonstrating the potential of OJV–extracted data to interpret labour market developments and prevent skill mismatches. Besides, Cedefop already relies on a range of labour market intelligence tools. The European skills forecast focuses on quantitative projections for future labour trends, the European skills index (ESI) measures the performance of EU skills systems and the European skills and jobs (ESJ) survey specifically analyses the nature and causes of skill mismatch across the EU28. The skills OVATE not only completes this offer by mapping the job-specific or/and regional demand for emerging skills, but also informs on what role the design of OJVs i.e. private or public plays vis-à-vis the skills in demand by the employers and the specific occupations in a defined region. For further analytical insights into the interplay between OJVs and skills, Cedefop published a research paper and a briefing paper on the topic in April 2019.