TVETipedia Glossary

International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED)

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ISCED is designed to serve as a framework to classify educational activities as defined in programmes and the resulting qualifications into internationally agreed categories. The basic concepts and definitions of ISCED are therefore intended to be internationally valid and comprehensive of the full range of education systems.

For more information on ISCED please see the Publications section of the UNESCO-UIS website featuring:

Report: Using ISCED to Compare Education Systems (En, Fr, Sp)
Country visualization diagrams
ISCED 2011 Operational Manual (En, Fr, Sp)
ISCED 2011 Classification (Ar, Ch, En, Fr, Ru, Sp)
ISCED Fields of Education and Training 2013 (Ar, Ch, En, Fr, Ru, Sp)
ISCED Fields of Education and Training 2013: Detailed Field Descriptions
ISCED-T 2021 (Ar, Ch, En, Fr, Ru, Sp), for detailed information see (separate section on UIS website)
ISCED 1997

Correspondence between ISCED 2011 and ISCED 1997

Compared to ISCED 1997 which had seven levels of education, ISCED 2011 has nine education levels, from level 0 to level 8 (tertiary education is more detailed).

ISCED 1997 level 5 is split up into levels 5-7 in ISCED 2011
ISCED 1997 level 6 is level 8 in ISCED 2011.

See: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=International_Standard_Classification_of_Education_(ISCED)

Source:
UIS, ISCED 2011 (International Standard Classification of Education), 2012
UIS, ISCED 2011 (International Standard Classification of Education), 2012
Access resource, available in English
As national education systems vary in terms of structure and curricular content, it can be difficult to benchmark performance across countries over time or monitor progress towards national and international goals. In order to understand and properly interpret the inputs, processes and outcomes of education systems from a global perspective, it is vital to ensure that data are comparable. This can be done by applying the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), the standard framework used to categorise and report cross-nationally comparable education statistics.

A classification system that provides a framework for the comprehensive statistical description of national educational systems and a methodology that translates national educational programmes into internationally comparable levels of education. The basic unit of classification in ISCED is the educational programme. ISCED also classifies programmes by field of study, programme orientation and destination.

Source:
UNESCO, Terminology of Technical and Vocational Education, 1984
UNESCO, Terminology of Technical and Vocational Education, 1984
Access resource, available in Arabic, English, French, Russian, Spanish
This publication is a practical terminology in the field of technical and vocational education for the purposes of international communication. After use of the original English/French version for over five years in numerous regional and international meetings, conferences, seminars and workshops held in those two languages, it was felt that publication of the guide in additional international languages would permit Unesco to contribute further to a better understanding in Member States of the Revised Recommendation concerning Technical and Vocational Education (1974), would facilitate the implementation of this instrument and would foster a more effective exchange of information in the field of technical and vocational education.