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Professional Profiles

Overview​

The Professional Profile module defines the identity of freelancers within TFST. It includes details such as skills, experience, certifications, and reputation.
To ensure a standardized and interoperable representation of professional skills and occupations, TFST adopts the European Skills, Competences, Qualifications, and Occupations (ESCO) framework as the foundation for professional profiles.

Alignment with ESCO​

ESCO provides a structured taxonomy of skills, occupations, and qualifications, which TFST integrates directly. This allows:

  • Standardized skill representation across different industries and regions.
  • Compatibility with European and international job markets.
  • Support for 28 languages without additional translation effort.
  • Better AI-driven recommendations by leveraging a unified dataset.

See ESCO here

Core Entities​

Professional Profile​

  • Represents a freelancer’s identity and a professional background.
  • Linked to ESCO-based skills, occupations, and qualifications.
  • Contains experience, endorsements, and reputation scoring.

Experience​

  • Work history including roles, responsibilities, and durations.
  • Mapped to ESCO occupations for standardized job classification.

Skills​

  • Skills are based on ESCO’s structured taxonomy.
  • Each skill has:
    • ESCO ID → Unique identifier from ESCO.
    • Name → Standardized name from ESCO.
    • Category → Categorized based on ESCO’s classification.
    • Source → (ESCO, O*NET, SFIA, etc.) in case additional sources are integrated.

Certifications​

  • Represents validated qualifications from recognized institutions.
  • Can be linked to ESCO qualifications when available.
  • Includes:
    • Certificate Name
    • Issuing Institution
    • ESCO Qualification Reference (if applicable)

Portfolio​

  • Work samples that showcase a freelancer’s expertise.
  • Can include links to GitHub, Dribbble, Behance, or other platforms.

Reputation​

  • Ratings and feedback from completed projects.
  • AI-driven credibility scoring based on work history and endorsements.

Relationships​

  • User (1:0..1) Professional Profile → Only freelancers have a professional profile.
  • Professional Profile (1:N) Experience → A freelancer can have multiple job experiences.
  • Professional Profile (1:N) Skills → A freelancer has multiple skills.
  • Professional Profile (1:N) Certifications → A freelancer can hold multiple certifications.
  • Professional Profile (1:N) Portfolio Items → Multiple projects linked to a profile.
  • Professional Profile (1:N) Reputation Scores → Different reputation metrics based on feedback.
erDiagram
    User ||--|| ProfessionalProfile : has
    ProfessionalProfile ||--o{ Experience : contains
    ProfessionalProfile ||--o{ Skills : includes
    ProfessionalProfile ||--o{ Certifications : holds
    ProfessionalProfile ||--o{ Portfolio : showcases
    ProfessionalProfile ||--o{ Reputation : builds

API Endpoints​

TFST exposes an API to manage professional profiles using ESCO data.

Search ESCO Skills​

GET /skills?query=software development&language=en

[
  { "id": "s-001", "name": "Software Development", "category": "Digital Skills", "source": "ESCO" },
  { "id": "s-002", "name": "Cloud Computing", "category": "IT Skills", "source": "ESCO" }
]

Get ESCO Occupations​

GET /occupations?query=cloud architect

[
  { "id": "p-101", "name": "Cloud Architect", "isco_code": "2523", "source": "ESCO" }
]

Associate Skills to a Profile​

POST /professional-profiles/{id}/skills

{
  "skills": ["s-001", "s-002"]
}

Future Enhancements​

  • AI-based skill gap analysis → Suggest missing skills based on ESCO recommendations.
  • Automated profile completion → Use ESCO metadata to suggest relevant experiences and qualifications.
  • Integration with LinkedIn & GitHub → Import existing skills and projects.

Why ESCO?​

Using ESCO as the foundation for TFST’s professional profiles ensures that:

  • Skills and occupations follow an international standard.
  • The system is future-proof, supporting integrations with global job markets.
  • Multilingual support is natively available.
  • TFST can extend ESCO by integrating O*NET, SFIA, and MAPHA where necessary.