A research team at IER is developing a multi-lingual software tool for coding occupations using several European languages. CASCOT software, which has been in use for over ten years, has been extended to include Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Slovakian and Spanish versions. There are plans to add other languages. The tool uses ISCO-08 as the main classification. This development is being undertaken as part of the EC FP7 project DASISH - Data Service Infrastructure for the Social Sciences and Humanities.

In the context of this work, Margaret Birch and Ritva Ellison gave a presentation entitled ‘CASCOT and the Coding of Occupations in European Surveys’ on 10 February 2014 at the InGRID (Inclusive Growth Research Infrastructure Diffusion) workshop organised by the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

A Workshop partially funded by the DASISH project will take place on 10-11 April 2014 in Venice. This event will provide participants with the opportunity to test the coding tool in their own language and contribute to fine-tuning the coding process. For more information on the Venice Workshop, please contact Margaret Birch (M.E.Birch@warwick.ac.uk).

At the invitation of Trexima Bratislava, Margaret Birch participated in an international conference held in Bratislava in April 2011 entitled: New challenges for skilled workforce – harmonising labour market needs with lifelong learning systems. This international conference was part of the national project VII-2 National Occupational Framework (NOF) in the Slovak republic, funded by the European Social Fund under the Operational Programme ‘Employment and Social Inclusion‘.

Margaret gave a presentation to the conference on the Implementation of ISCO 08 in the UK, focusing on the revision of the UK Standard Occupational Classification, SOC2010. Other international contributors were from the ILO’s Bureau of Statistics; from Netherlands-based ‘Colo‘ – the association of National Centres of Expertise on VET and the Labour Market; and from e-skills UK.

Following the April conference the director of Trexima Bratislava and three of his staff made a fact-finding visit to IER3 in June. Earlier contact with Trexima had involved working with Peter Elias and Margaret Birch on the development and implementation of the Slovak occupational classification in the late 1990s, and subsequently their participation in the EU PHARE Programme initiative, led by Peter Elias, to provide Technical Assistance in Classification of Occupations (TACO) via a series of workshops for the countries of East and Central Europe. Trexima, who work in partnership with the Slovak Statistical Office, have a keen interest in many aspects of the work of the IER. The programme organised for them included presentations given by Terence Hogarth, Kate Purcell and Rob Wilson, and a presentation of CASCOT made by Peter Elias and Ritva Ellison. The IER also organised for the Trexima visitors to meet staff at the Classification and Harmonisation Unit of the Office for National Statistics in Titchfield.