DISCO – Dictionary of Skills and Competencies Heidemarie Müller-Riedlhuber 3s Unternehmensberatung DISCO final presentation seminar Prague, February 28 th, 2008 Welcome !

3s Unternehmensberatung, Contents __ General information on the project __ The DISCO products __ The DISCO thesaurus __ The DISCO book: handout example __ The DISCO online services: demonstration of search and translation __ The DISCO online services: demonstration of CV profiling __ The DISCO web service interface: demonstration of example __ Future perspectives of DISCO

3s Unternehmensberatung, DISCO mission statement the Dictionary of Skills and Competencies aims at supporting the transparency and comparability of skills and competencies by providing a well-structured and proven multilingual terminology.

3s Unternehmensberatung, DISCO project facts and figures DISCO was funded by: European Commisson (Leonardo da Vinci programme) Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture Duration of the project: September 2004 – February 2008 Partnership: 8 operative and 10 silent partners

3s Unternehmensberatung, DISCO project operative partners __ 3s Unternehmensberatung GmbH (AT) __ BETA/Céreq Alsace – Univ. Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg (FR) __ BIBB Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (DE) __ BUTE Budapest Univ. of Technology and Economics (HU) __ BW Bildung und Wissen Verlag und Software GmbH (DE) __ NUOV Národni ústav odborného vzdelávání (CZ) __ TANINFO Kft. (HU) __ Vytautas Magnus Univ./Center for VE & Research (LT)

3s Unternehmensberatung, DISCO main products the Dictionary of Skills and Competencies offers __ a thesaurus of skills and competencies in seven languages __ several online tools with web service functionality for __ searching and translating terms __ creating and translating CV profiles or other skill descriptions __ a trilingual print version (English, German, French) The DISCO online tools are available at

3s Unternehmensberatung, DISCO co-products co-products concerning thesaurus and service maintenance __ survey on existing international thesauri __ survey on user needs __ editing tool for thesaurus development and maintenance __ presentation system (website with online services for search, translation, browsing and profiling; web service interface) incl. database __ review and production system for partner comments on the thesaurus, for translation file up- and download and for discussion of project matters

3s Unternehmensberatung, DISCO thesaurus: approach has a comprehensive understanding of skills and competencies that includes __ personal attitudes __ values __ behavioural patterns __ vocational abilities etc., independent of whether they have been acquired formally or informally.

3s Unternehmensberatung, National classifications: __ AMS-Qualifikationsbarometer (AT): __ Kompetenzenkatalog BerufeNet (DE): __ Répertoire Opérationnel des Métiers et des Emplois – ROME (FR): __ Taxonomy database (SWE): International classifications and standards: __ EURES CV (EU): __ ISCO-88 (International Standard Classification of Occupation) __ ISCED (International Standard Classification of Education) __ NACE (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the EC) DISCO thesaurus: basis

3s Unternehmensberatung, contains __ in the online version: about terms ( per language) (for Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Swedish) __ in the printed version: about terms (for English, German and French) __d epending on language: descriptors (preferred terms) non-descriptors (synonyms) DISCO thesaurus - figures

3s Unternehmensberatung, DISCO thesaurus – structure roughly distinguishes between: Domain specific skills and competencies: specialized knowledge pertaining to a particular occupation or occupational group (skills like e.g. cardiology) Non domain specific skills and competencies: __ Personal competencies: personal attributes, attitudes and capacities (e.g. motivation, leadership etc.) __ Core skills, generic skills, key skills and transferable skills (e.g. problem solving, literacy etc.) __ Other important terms for the description of competencies (e.g. basic action verbs like to sell, to repair etc.)

3s Unternehmensberatung, DISCO thesaurus – structure Non domain specific skills and competencies Domain specific skills and competencies

3s Unternehmensberatung, DISCO book The DISCO book will be available in March 2008 via the DISCO portal at and at The book provides three language versions next to each other and consists of three main parts: __ Overview of the thesaurus sectors (1st hierarchy level) __ 25 domain specific and 7 non domain specific sectors with hierarchically structured preferred terms and alphabetically listed synonyms and related terms __ Index part: one index for each language version

3s research laboratory, DISCO book

3s Unternehmensberatung, DISCO online services – search/translate DISCO offers a term search, browse and translation function for terms and provides term information as well as thesaurus structuring information. The DISCO online services are available at

3s Unternehmensberatung, DISCO online services – profiling DISCO offers a profiling tool for the creation of the Europass CV, the European Mobility pass and simple unformatted skill lists. The skills and competencies of a profile may be translated into different languages and may be exported in different formats.

3s Unternehmensberatung, DISCO online services – profiling The plain text file and the different Europass export formats offer the possibility to complete the created CV e.g. with personal data (name, address...) and save it on the users computer. The XML formats offer the possibility to reuse the created profile in the context of another website. For example users could export the created profile and upload it afterwards to the Europass website.

3s Unternehmensberatung, DISCO web service interface The DISCO online services are available as web services which may be adapted for foreign web portals. One example for a web service application that is based on the usage of the DISCO thesaurus is the implementation of DISCO into e.g. the Europass online form.

3s Unternehmensberatung, DISCO – future perspectives I DISCO tends to widen its scope of support for the transparency and comparability of skills and competencies in Europe by means of __ permanent maintenance, update and enlargement of the DISCO terminology __ further development of the DISCO thesaurus content and structure __ integration of more language versions __ development of additional (prototypical) applications __ test implementations __ practical application

3s Unternehmensberatung, DISCO – future perspectives II Please contact us if you are interested in __ implementing existing DISCO services at your website __ using the DISCO thesaurus at your website __ ordering copies of the DISCO book __ co-operations concerning the development of additional DISCO applications __ being a beta test partner for our DISCO services __ supporting the maintenance and further development of DISCO

3s Unternehmensberatung, Thank you for your attendance! Please visit: Contact: Heidemarie Müller-Riedlhuber 3s Unternehmensberatung