Creative FLIP’s suggestions for using ESCO for refining the occupational scope of the CCS

November 2023

Creative FLIP strives for a more comprehensive coverage as well as a better visibility and accessibility of CCS-related employment information in European statistics but also in the European Skills, Competences and Occupations taxonomy (ESCO). Cultural occupations occur at almost every skill level and with a broad variety of skills specialisations, and thus are scattered all over the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) which currently provides the main reference point for categorizing the occupational scope of the CCS. But even at the most detailed level of ISCO, you cannot in all cases distinguish relevant from irrelevant content. Furthermore, CCS-relevant ISCO categories have, to date, only been identified for the CCS as a whole, and not for individual domains like Visual Arts or Performing Arts. As a consequence, employment information can be presented at the detailed, yet fragmented level of individual ISCO groups, or aggregated at the level of the CCS as a whole, but at the level of specific cultural-creative domains it is currently impossible to make any statements.

We addressed this challenge by using the ESSnet, 2012 / Eurostat, 2018 definition of cultural occupations and applying it to ESCO. Check out Annex I to e.g.

• Access all ESCO occupations characterising CCS-specific activities in the domain of Audiovisual & Multimedia, Heritage, or the cross-cutting sphere of Events;
• Get an overview of which cultural-creative ESCO occupations contribute to e.g. the production of cultural content, products, or services;
• Explore the fuzzy edges of the current Eurostat Framework for cultural statistics, e.g. discover CCS-relevant content in ISCO categories so far out of scope like
  ISCO 2422-Policy administration professionals (à ESCO occupation cultural policy officer), or ISCO 3332-Conference and event planners (à ESCO occupation venue programmer)

Did we inspire an interest to use ESCO for describing cultural-creative skills profiles? Then check out the “Tips and Tricks” we have prepared for you!

Read the full publications below.