Anna Marszałek
ESCO - a tool supporting the functioning of teaching systems and job markets

Academic centres are a part of bigger system, which include agencies responsible for the functioning of higher education or agendas regulating job market activity. Within each system, for its proper functioning, relations allowing exchange of information should occur as they guarantee success and further efficient functioning of the system. Employers' requirements are still growing; nowadays it is not enough to have a university degree. Vital role is played by graduates' competencies, such as creativity or ability to cooperate in a group. There are increasingly more graduates who are aware that the technological development coerces a constant adaptation to new conditions and forms of work, which, consequently, is connected with continuous improvement of one's qualifications. Therefore, there are great hopes about ESCO - a new initiative of the European Commission, which aims at developing common taxonomy of competencies and professions. In the article the author discusses the significance of knowledge in the process of lifelong education. The paper focuses also on the role of ESCO in connecting education world with job market as well as on promoting an approach based on the development of competencies among prospective employees.