by Snježana Đuričić, Bosnia and Herzegovina
In the previous system, there was a clear distinction between occupation as a category of the world of work and vocational title/qualification as an outcome of education, linked to defined qualification levels. Today, labour market changes increasingly blur this distinction, as formally acquired qualifications more and more represent only one stage of professional development rather than its final outcome.
For education and employment systems, this implies the need for a more flexible approach to qualifications — one that enables both vertical and horizontal mobility, as well as recognition of prior learning and skills regardless of how they were acquired. In this context, it is particularly important to ensure that qualifications are based on clearly defined learning outcomes and connected to real labour market requirements, enabling smoother transitions between education, training and employment. This is precisely the role of standards of occupation and standards of qualification, as key instruments for linking labour market requirements with learning outcomes and ensuring their alignment. Such a shift in the understanding of careers further opens the question of the basic concepts on which systems still rely.
The problem: what is an occupation and what is a vocational title?
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the concept of occupation is used differently in statistics and education. While statistics defines occupation as a set of jobs and tasks of similar content and complexity, education systems link it to qualification levels. This difference is not merely terminological — it has direct implications for curriculum development, classification of occupation and the relevance of education to labour market needs.
Statistics and education: two different languages
From a statistical perspective, occupation is an analytical category grouping jobs according to their content and complexity. The basic unit is work — a set of jobs and tasks a person performs or is capable of performing.
The education sector, by contrast, defines occupation and vocational title through legal frameworks and qualification levels. In most cases:
- occupation is associated with Level III qualifications,
- vocational title with Level IV qualifications.
This use of terminology originates from the Framework Law on Secondary Vocational Education and Training[i] and has been retained in most legal frameworks of the competent authorities.
Analysis of legal frameworks shows that statistics and education systems use the same terms with different meanings. While statistics makes a clear conceptual distinction between occupation (world of work) and vocational title (world of education), the education system reduces this distinction to differences in educational level. The result is a parallel but non-aligned use of concepts.
Although the Framework of Qualifications has not yet been formally adopted, the term qualification is already used in certain legal frameworks across the country.
This distinction has concrete implications. Initiatives to introduce new educational programmes are often interpreted as a need to introduce “new occupations”, resulting in demands to amend the classification of occupation (KZ-08, the official Classification of Occupations in Bosnia and Herzegovina)).[ii]
An example is the introduction of code 3119 tourism-hospitality technician, despite the existence of related occupations already included in the classification, such as:
- 4221 travel consultant / travel organisation clerk
- 4224 hotel receptionist / front office supervisor
Insistence on this title, particularly within Major Group 3, indicates a misunderstanding of the purpose of the statistical classification, where the term technician refers to occupations whose tasks require technical knowledge and experience across different fields. Classification is based on the content and complexity of jobs and tasks rather than educational profiles. In practice, however, this often leads to conflating educational levels — and even individual curricula — with levels of work complexity.
These dilemmas further confirm the importance of a clear understanding of the ISCO-08 methodology on the one hand, and the function of qualifications frameworks and related standards on the other. This does not mean that classifications of occupation should not evolve. On the contrary, the International Labour Organization continuously updates ISCO-08 globally to ensure that classifications respond to rapid changes in the world of work, including digitalisation and new forms of work organisation.
How the project approached the development of standards of occupation
In this context, a standard of occupation refers to a structured description of the jobs and tasks performed within a particular occupation, together with the associated requirements and capabilities[iii] needed for successful performance. It serves as the basis for developing standards of qualification and, consequently, ensuring their relevance.
Within the project, methodologies developed through various initiatives over the past decade and more were adapted and simplified.
Since the legal framework and institutional mechanisms for developing standards of occupation are not normatively defined, the approach proceeded in parallel through:
- establishing working groups composed of business representatives from the targeted sector, and
- organising DACUM[iv] workshops.
This approach enabled the combination of practical experience with structured methodological work.
What did the project show?
The question of who should define standards of occupation, and how, remains open. The project demonstrated that this role cannot be carried solely by education authorities or schools.
On the other hand:
- occupational profile questionnaires proved to be a useful starting point,
- working groups enabled the exchange of different practical perspectives.
At the same time, several recurring patterns were identified, including:
- equating formal education with managerial competences,
- mixing different levels of task complexity within a single occupation,
- combining jobs and competences from different occupations within a single workplace,
- a narrow understanding of entrepreneurial competences as relating exclusively to running one’s own business.
The DACUM methodology once again proved demanding in contexts characterised by limited understanding of core concepts and insufficient availability of relevant practitioners.
These patterns point to a systemic misunderstanding of the relationship between occupations, vocational titles and the actual organisation of work.
What next?
Each of the identified issues points to a deeper misunderstanding of what is actually being classified when discussing occupations, vocational titles, qualifications and standards of occupation. This requires clearly targeted directions for future action, particularly in relation to:
- broader understanding of ISCO-08 and ISCED-F,[v]
- potential application of ESCO,[vi]
- development and implementation of the Framework of Qualifications,
- establishment of mechanisms for developing of standards of occupation and standards of qualification.
The growing use of artificial intelligence opens possibilities for supporting more transparent alignment between the worlds of work and education. However, without a clear methodological and practical distinction between the concepts of occupation, vocational title and qualification, any attempt at separate standardisation will remain limited in both scope and impact.
In this context, “capabilities” refer to the application of knowledge, skills and competences in performing the jobs and tasks associated with a particular occupation.
[i] Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina, No. 63/08.
[ii] The introduction of new educational profiles may result in the introduction of occupational codes for occupations already covered by the classification, leading to the parallel use of titles such as mechatronics technician (3113) and technician for mechatronics (3119), despite their substantial overlap in content.
[iii] In this context, ‘capabilities’ refer to the application of knowledge, skills and competences in performing the jobs and tasks associated with a particular occupation.
[iv] DACUM (Developing A Curriculum) is a structured approach to occupational analysis based on the work of an expert practitioner group facilitated by a facilitator, aimed at precisely defining the duties and tasks characteristic of a particular occupation.
[v] ISCED-F 2013 is UNESCO’s international classification for categorising education and training programmes and qualifications according to fields of education and training.
[vi] ESCO (European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations) is the European classification of occupations, skills and qualifications linking education and the labour market.
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