Research and analysis

Updating the Standard Skills Classification

Published 27 November 2025

Updating the Standard Skills Classification

Procedures for maintaining and updating the UK Standard Skills Classification (SSC) require resources. To aid in identifying the scale of the resources required, this section sets out the reasons underlying the need for revisions to the classification, the procedures to be followed, indicates the sources of information for updating the classification, and suggests how the processes required for maintenance and updating could be organised.

The need for revision

To remain fit-for-purpose, the SSC will require ongoing monitoring and maintenance to reflect changes in 3 areas.

The UK labour market:

• occupations emerge and evolve, potentially impacting upon the associated skill requirements meaning that skill requirements are dynamic

Education and training:

• new knowledge, technologies and teaching methods relating to skills development mean that course curricula and qualification criteria need to be kept up to date

Terminology:

• the language used to refer to occupations, skills and technologies is not fixed, they may become better known by different names that need to be recognised for the classification to remain meaningful to users

Revision procedures

The SSC links occupations to skills via the most detailed level of the UK Standard Occupational Classification (currently SOC2020 at the 6-digit level).  Responsibility for monitoring and updating SOC2020 rests with the Office for National Statistics (ONS).  The updating process adopted by the ONS is performed in 2 stages.

Continuous monitoring of job titles and job content leads to what are termed ‘index changes’, where new job titles are allocated within the existing structure of the classification. Structural changes relate to the needs of users for new categories within the classification.

These same considerations will apply to the SSC. Where new skills are recognised, which are distinct from any existing skills, these should be positioned within the existing structure of the SSC. Feedback from users may lead to changes in the structure of the SSC.

Managing these 2 types of changes requires that resources should be allocated both for continuous monitoring and for structural revisions. How these are organised is an important part of the overall management arrangements for the SSC.  Ideally, one full-time post would provide for continuous monitoring of the classification, engaging with users, responding to user queries, identifying and validating the types of information required for the identification of new Occupational Skills, linking these to tasks, education and training, and Core Skills.

Changes in the structure of the classification are more complex.  The need for structural changes arises where users demand changes in Skill Domains, Areas or Groups.  Such changes can create discontinuities for users of the classification, particularly where such use has led to the time series analysis of the skill structure of labour markets. 

Careful evaluation is required before structural changes are implemented, weighing up the benefits to those users demanding structural change against the potential disruption to the classification as an instrument for monitoring the skill structure of labour markets through time. 

The SOC has adopted a ten-year cycle for implementation of any structural changes.  It is suggested that a somewhat shorter cycle be adopted for the SSC, at least in the first few years after its implementation by various agencies across the UK.  The first version of the SSC, described in this document as a prototype, may be subject to significant changes after one year, thereafter moving to a five-year cycle.

Identifying and validating skill updates

Continuous monitoring of the classification will require collection, categorisation and analysis of several information sources, most likely including:

• job vacancies data
• workforce foresighting activities (for example the challenge-led programmes run by Innovate UK’s Workforce Foresighting Hub)
• employer forums and associations
• public community forums (for example Stack Exchange and Discord)
• patent filings

These sources could lead both to terminological changes, and to the identification of new skills which would be positioned within the existing structure and linked to occupations, tasks, education and training, and core skills.

Once the cycle for structural revision has been agreed, a wide net should be cast to engage with existing and potential users, seeking their views on the adequacy of the SSC for their specific uses and their suggestions for revisions.  Suggested additions, revisions and corrections would also be invited by existing users with all amendments under consideration being visible both to prevent duplicate submissions and to allow users to adopt provisional content prior to formal approval.