Title: Developing a detailed 8-country occupations database for comparative socio-economic research in the European Union
Duration: April 2006 - March 2009
Funded by: European Commission - 6th Framework Programme - FP6-028987
EurOccupations Project description
EurOccupations Conferences and meetings
Adding new occupations to the EurOccupations database
EurOccupations Supporting organisations
EurOccupations Partners
- Erasmus University Rotterdam, Department of Social Sciences
- Arbeid Opleidingen Consult Tilburg
- Catholic University of Leuven, Hoger Instituut voor de Arbeid
- University of Warwick, Warwick Institute for Employment Research
- University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Institute for Labour Studies (AIAS)
- University of Economics Poznan, Katedra Pracy i Polityki Spolecznej
- Foundation centre for European initiatives and research in the Mediterranean (Fundació Centre d'Iniciatives i Recerques Europees a la Mediterrània (CIREM)
- Wage Indicator Foundation
- Centre d'études et de recherches sur les qualifications (CEREQ), Marseille
- ArbeitsWelt - Working World GmbH, Göttingen
Project management: Erasmus University Rotterdam, Department of Sociology - Kea Tijdens. For further information about EurOccupations contact prof. Kea Tijdens or dr. Judith de Ruijter.
EurOccupations Project description
The EurOccupations project aimed to build a publicly available database containing the most common occupations for use in multi-country data-collection, through the Internet or otherwise. It covered eight EU countries, notably Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and United Kingdom. The database includes a source list of 1,594 distinct occupational titles within the ISCO-08 classification, country-specific translations and a search tree to navigate through the database.
EurOccupations has investigated the similarity of occupations in eight countries for 150 occupations selected from the source list. The test focused on job content, required skill levels, and competencies. The test was based on information gathered via existing databases and via experts from interest organisations and social science researchers. The database contains job descriptions and task lists as well as expert ratings with regard to the frequencies of the tasks and the required entry qualification for eight countries and 150 occupations.
EurOccupations has developed several tools, among others a procedure for drafting new task lists, a procedure for expert data collection, a web-survey on occupations for experts, CASCOT software for coding job titles, and a website to search task frequencies, see the Icares and EuOccupations website. In addition, it has produced research papers about the state-of-the-art of occupational classifications, the occupational structure in Poland, on social stratification, on gender and skill bias in the EurOccupations Database, and on the priciples underlying the design of the EurOccupations Database. Here the database can be consulted in many languages.
EurOccupations Deliverables
EurOccupations Data
For a selection of 150 occupations, EurOccupations aimed at testing the similartity regarding job content, required skill level, and competency profiles across the 8 member states. For this test, experts on occupations in the participating countries have been asked to complete a web-survey. The dataset of this survey is freely available by sending an email with name and affiliate information to Kea Tijdens, University of Amsterdam. The codebook of this data can be downloaded here.
EurOccupations Policy Briefs
European Policy Brief no 1 Database of Occupations (pdf 150 kB)
European Policy Brief no 2 Similarity of occupations and skills (pdf 170 kB)
European Policy Brief no 3 CASCOT coding program (pdf 115 kB)
European Policy Brief no 4 Occupational structure in Poland (pdf 105 kB)
EurOccupations Conferences and meetings
Final conference, 23 & 24 April 2009, Brussels and Leuven, Belgium
During the final conference the results of our expert research were presented and workshops were given on the basis of our latest papers. Downloads of research papers and further details on the final conference are available in the EurOccupations Deliverables.
The third and last international conference took place in Brussels and Leuven (Belgium) on Thursday 23 and Friday 24 April 2009. Click to download the presentations of 23 April or 24 April.
Thursday 23 April, 11:00hrs-17:00hrs
Location: The International Auditorium in Brussels
11:00u – 13:00u Welcome and lunch
13:00u – 13:05u Welcome - Prof. Peter Elias (Warwick, IER)
13:05u – 13:15u Presentation by EC project officer Tihamer Laczko
13:15u – 15:20u Results of the EurOccupations database for different
clusters of occupations – 8 EurOccupations partners
15:20u – 15:40u Break
15:40u – 15:55u Demonstration website EurOccupations database –
Icares
15:55u – 16:55u Panel discussion on results of the EurOccupations
project and future possibilities - chair: Paulien Osse,
Wageindicator
16:45u- 17:00u Final words - Prof. Peter Elias (Warwick, IER)
Friday 24 April, 09:00hrs-15:30hrs
09:00u – 09:15u Welcome
09:15u – 09:45u Introduction EurOccupations project and expert data
collection - Dr. Judith de Ruijter (AO Consult) and
Dr. Yves de Weerdt (KU Leuven)
09:45u – 10:30u 2 parallel paper sessions:
- “Social stratification”
- “Development of associated software for EurOccupations database
10:30u – 10:45u Break
10:45u – 11:30u 2 parallel paper sessions:
- “Gender bias”
- “Occupational structure in Poland"
11:30u- 12:00u Use of the EurOccupations database of 1,500
occupations in web surveys – Prof. Kea Tijdens
(Erasmus University Rotterdam)
12:00u – 12:30u Lunch
EurOccupations international expert conference, 21-22 May 2008, Marseille, France
The goal of the international expert conference was to gain further insight into similarities and differences in the relevant occupational and educational structures in the 8 countries and to discuss certain problematic cases. Each session focused on relevant issues for (occupations in) the cluster of occupations and the consequences for the EurOccupations database.
During the conference sessions, the following topics were addressed:
-
the occupational structure in clusters of occupations;
-
the educational structure in clusters of occupations;
-
relevant developments and consequences for occupations;
-
certain ‘problematic’ occupations (e.g., blurred occupations, high
(generalised) heterogeneity).
The International expert conference was a great success. The presentations of the experts sessions can be downloaded here.
Plenary session
Transport
Trade and Agriculture
- Horse riding instructor
- Lantra sector skills council
- Hairdresser (Warwick IER)
- Hairdressing occupations (CWI)
Information, communication, finance and legal
Construction
Clerks, staff, management, army & police
- Managers in Poland
- Local government administration occupations
- Local government occupations
- Ecabo: Clerks presentation
- Federación de servicios presentation
Manufacturing
Care and Welfare
Education
Special thanks to Paul Dorsemagen for taking pictures.
EurOccupations FAQ
Veel gestelde vragen
Questions fréquemment posées
Häufig gestellte fragen
Questions fréquemment posées
Preguntas más frecuentes
Domande più frequenti
Veel gestelde vragen
Pytania i odpowiedzi
Frequently asked questions
Adding new occupations to the EurOccupations database
If you are interested in adding new occupations to the EurOccupations database, a toolkit is available.
This toolkit includes the following procedures:
- EurOccupations procedures to develop task descriptions for occupations;
- EurOccupations procedures that describe the procedures to collect detailed occupation information;
- EurOccupations procedures to recruit (inter)national experts, who can validate the occupational information.
For more information about adding occupations and the EurOccupations toolkit, please contact Judith de Ruijter, AO Consult (www.aoconsult.nl).
EurOccupations Procedures
To ensure a uniform execution of research by all project partners in Europe the EurOccupations project was done using the following procedures:
EurOccupations Researchers
The EurOccupations researchers in the Netherlands are:
- Erasmus University Rotterdam
- Kea Tijdens (project co-ordinator)
- Joyce Jacobs
- Chiria da Luz Fortes (project manager)
- Arbeid Opleidingen Consult Tilburg
- Judith de Ruijter (co-ordinator expert data collection)
- Esther de Ruijter
- University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies
- Marc van der Meer
- Bárbora Brngalova
- Wage Indicator Foundation
- Paulien Osse
The EurOccupations researchers in the United Kingdom are:
- Warwick Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick
- Peter Elias (chair advisory board)
- Margaret Birch
- Ritva Ellison
The EurOccupations researchers in Belgium are:
- Catholic University of Leuven, Hoger Instituut voor de Arbeid
- Yves deWeerdt
- Tom vandenBrande
The EurOccupations researchers in Poland are:
- University of Economics Poznan, Katedra Pracy i Polityki Spolecznej (Unit of Work and Social Policy)
- Piotr Michoń
- Magda Andrałojc
The EurOccupations researchers in Spain are:
- Fundació Centre d'Iniciatives i Recerques Europees a la Mediterrània
- Oriol Holms
- Esteban Villarejo
The EurOccupations researchers in France are:
- Centre d'études et de recherches sur les qualifications
- Sylvie-Anne Mériot
- Jean-Louis Kirsch
The EurOccupations researcher in Germany is:
- AWWW GmbH Göttingen
- Anni Weiler
EurOccupations Supporting Organisations
- AIAS/University of Amsterdam
- BGA-Nederland
- CBS
- Cedefop
- Destatis
- Eures
- European Social Survey
- European Training Foundation
- Eurostat
- Free University Amsterdam
- HBA
- Hoge Hotelschool Maastricht
- Icares
- KOC
- Kennisnet
- Lerenenwerken.nl
- Ministry of Labour, France
- Monster.be
- Nederlands Instituut voor Lastechniek
- OBN
- Radboud University Nijmegen
- Sociaal Fonds Taxi
- VTL
- University of Warwick
- WCC Group
EurOccupations Newsletters
Click to download our published newsletters: