Training on occupational classifications

1. Training on occupational classifications

2. Introduction • ISCO 08 has started to be implemented in the EU countries in several social surveys this year (2010 in the structure of earnings survey) • At least those who are supposed to code occupations according to this classification should receive the appropriate training • For those MS which although not using directly ISCO 08 in their data collection, use a national occupational classification which has also been revised in order to cope with the new ISCO training should be foreseen to the main stakeholders coding or using occupational data • Some possible exceptions: • Countries not using directly ISCO 08 but using a national classification and data is after transcoded into ISCO 08 in a more or less automatic way. • Occupations is collected at a very elementary level (job title) and automatically recoded into the national occupational classification and into ISCO 08. Name of the presentation

3. Training on occupational classification in the EU member states Have done it: AT, BE, BG, HR, CY, CZ, EE, FI, HU, IT LV, LT, MT, NO, PL, PT, SK, SI, ES, TK Will do it: DE, NL, SE Not Yet: GR, RO Information: LU Haven’t done it: DK, IE, UK, CH Name of the presentation

4. Who participated? NSIs staff at central and regional level ministries, federations, human resources experts interviewers, supervisors encoders Name of the presentation

5. How long it took? Name of the presentation

6. What material was provided? structure of the new classification (in general the national one) alphabetic index of occupations new search/encoding tools explanatory notes correspondence tables new legal texts where to find information on the web lists of changes between the new and the old classification Practical exercises PPs presentations Name of the presentation

7. Use of Eurostat or ILO websites • 18 MS out of 23 stated to have used the ISCO website from Eurostat, ILO or both. • Eurostat site was in general considered useful. It was mostly used to get background information (structure, explanatory notes and correspondence tables) but also to look for complementary information like the task force conclusions on boundary situations or documents from the workshops. Forum discussions were also considered helpful. • Participation of David Hunter in the Eurostat forum was considered very helpful • But… • ILO site could be improved by updating the existent information. Name of the presentation

8. Keys for the success of a training on occupation (1) • Concerning the content it was considered important to focus on: • Main principles of an occupational classification • Structure of this classification • What is new in this classification. Analyse in detail the changes and its practical implications • Relation of this classification with other classifications • Presenting new methodological concepts like supervisors versus managers, ... • Analyse possible problematic areas of the classification and provision of guidelines. Alert the trainers to particular situations. • Present auxiliary materials: explanatory notes, correspondence tables, indexes, coding tools • Providing information on occupations existing in the country but also identify those which are not expected to exist • Provide some information on the use of auxiliary information (existent in the survey) to help in the coding Name of the presentation

9. Keys for the success of a training on occupation (2) • A good trainer should: • Have a good knowledge of the classification and of the related subjects and of the tools for coding • Being able to identify trainee's needs • Adapt the training to the audience Name of the presentation

10. Keys for the success of a training on occupation (3) • The best materials mentioned were: • Slides • Posters to recall the basic concepts • Use of websites • Practical examples / exercises Name of the presentation

11. Keys for the success of a training on occupation (4) • The perfect training was considered to be: • Not exclusively theory, it should be balanced in terms of theory and practical examples/ exercises. • Should provide discussion sessions to share experiences and best practices • Should give the opportunity to trainees to give feedback on the tools and materials they use • Could include a follow up session sometime after the training allowing some time for assimilating and practicing the learned concepts Name of the presentation

12. Keys for the success of a training on occupation (5) • In a world of life long learning, training should have a follow-up and the quality of encoders work should be regularly checked in order to correct possible systematic errors. Name of the presentation

13. Complex areas of ISCO 08 • The boundaries between managers and supervisors, different kinds of managers, managers which are not included in Major Group 1 • Armed force Occupations • IT occupations • Distinction between related occupations from Major Group 2 and 3 • How to code public service administrative occupations • How to deal with occupations covering tasks of 2 different ISCO groups • Classification of occupations not existent in the previous classification Name of the presentation

14. Evaluation of the training • It is considered good practice to conduct some kind of evaluation of the training most commonly by having feedback from the trainees using a questionnaire. • Another way of evaluating the training (probably more accurate) is to establish some kind of quality control of the coding done by encoders or interviewers and in the case of detection of systematic errors propose a follow-up session to revise the areas of the classification which are still not well understood. • Several countries have conducted an evaluation of the training and results in general were satisfactory. • In some countries the evaluation revealed lack of practical exercises Name of the presentation

15. Thanks for your attention Name of the presentation