In many sectors, employers struggle to find people with the right skills.

In Iceland for example, the tourist industry is flourishing but has difficulties to find new employees.

We are totally dependent on a workforce from abroad.

Over 10% of the workforce in Iceland are foreign workers.

The European Commission developed ESCO,

a multilingual classification of skills, qualifications, and occupations to better connect people and jobs.

The Public Employment Service in Iceland wants to use ESCO to revamp its online job platform.

This can help the tourist industry and many other employers to find the talents they need, including from other EU countries.

We’re facing the same challenges that is matching jobseekers with the correct positions everytime.

Employers will be able to communicate, very clearly, their needs and see whether an applicant has the skills they are looking for.

They can then make a fair comparison of all applicants, including applicants from overseas.

It will be the same for all EU countries and it will be easier for them to find the talents they need.

Jobseekers will be able to see exactly what employers are looking for in a candidate,

what skills and experience they will need.

They will be in no doubt whether they are a suitable candidate for the job.

They can apply with confidence that the employers will be able to appreciate their value.

ESCO is free, it is available as Linked Open Data so it’s very accessible.

ESCO is multilingual so we can also use it in case we want for example an English and Polish version of our new portal.

With this initiative, Iceland becomes one of the first countries to introduce the ESCO classification at a national level.

We’re proud to be first to integrate ESCO at this level.

Our businesses are looking for skilled Europeans to help them grow and we’re happy that people want to come here over to work.

Download and use ESCO today.