Cedefop European Skills Index

The European Skills Index (ESI) develop by Cedefop is a composite indicator for monitoring the performance of EU skills systems. The Index measures the “distance to the ideal” performance of national skills systems using a composite indicator approach. ESI monitors countries’ performance over time, and this ideal performance is picked as the best of any country over a seven-year period. The Index provides insights into possible improvement areas and delivers evidence that supports the EU policy framework for VET and skills.

The pillar of ESI

The index is built on three pillars, skills development, activation and matching, each of which measures a different aspect of a skills system:

• Skills development refers to a country's education and training operations as well as the system's immediate results in terms of skills developed.
• Skills activation covers indications of the transition from education to work, as well as labor market activity rates for various demographic groups.
• Skills matching refers to the degree to which skills are successfully utilized and the extent to which skills are effectively matched in the labour market

Cedefop uses ESI to characterize skills systems in a comprehensive way. National skills systems play an important role in not just developing people's skills, but also in activating those capabilities in the workplace and effectively matching them to labor market and workplace needs. This idea is reflected in the 3 pillars. 

Methodology of the Index

The European Skills Index uses the latest available data and is constructed based on the guidelines of Joint Research Centre (JRC) Handbook on constructing Composite Indicators. 

The ESI webtool presents the 2022 release and also shows scores for 2021 and 2020, however scores for these years have been back-casted using the 2022 methodology.