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In the energy market, we observe a dynamic development of innovative business models that take into account various aspects related to the direction of zero-emission economic growth. Companies are intensifying their efforts in utilizing renewable energy sources, implementing significant photovoltaic projects, and advancing technologies related to wind and hydrodynamic energy. Within this trend, microgrids become a crucial element, enabling efficient management of local energy sources. Contemporary energy companies also focus on innovative digital technologies, harnessing the potential of the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). These tools allow for precise monitoring and optimization of energy consumption, resulting in increased operational efficiency. The expansion of subscription-based energy services encompasses not only traditional energy deliveries but also new aspects, such as intelligent management of home energy installations or the provision of advisory services on energy conservation. This approach emphasizes the customer as a partner in sustainable energy usage. Hybrid energy models, integrating diverse energy sources, constitute a key element in the transformation of the sector. The combination of photovoltaic, wind, and traditional power plants allows for flexible adaptation to changing conditions and maintains stability in the energy supply. In the face of a changing energy landscape, companies consistently strive for sustainable practices, implementing strategies that not only reduce their carbon footprint but also contribute to improving efficiency, ecology, and the decentralization of the energy system. Adapting to these dynamic changes becomes not only a challenge but also an opportunity to create a more sustainable energy future. The objective of this research is to analyze key business models in the energy market and identify their impact on operational efficiency and market competitiveness. The main results indicate significant improvements in energy management and sustainability through the adoption of these models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing research interests in energy service companies (ESCOs) has led to an increase in published research spanning the past decade. However, attempts to map global ESCO-related research have been sparse. The aim of this paper is to map the trends in ESCO, to appraise the state of the field in global ESCO research, and to identify current research gaps. This is achieved by conducting a systematic literature review and qualitative analysis of recently published research papers. The study uses bibliographic, co-citation, and keyword analysis to identify recent trends in global ESCO research. The results show that the aspects of ESCO that most studies have focused on are business models, market development, barriers, and drivers of ESCO, stakeholders in ESCO, energy performance contracts, and risk management in ESCO. In addition, the study identifies two main research gaps in ESCO research. These are public-private partnerships in ESCO programs and the development of a harmonised measurement and verification method for energy savings as the research gaps in ESCO studies. The outcomes of this study would be useful for understanding current developments in global ESCO research and to guide the next frontier in the subject.

Energy efficiency (EE) is our “first fuel” and an essential resource in reaching climate goals, reducing dependence on fossil fuels, increasing security of supply, and many other “Multiple Benefits.” However, by their nature, savings are intangible. Demand-side EE measures are typically decentralized, heterogeneous, and small-scale opportunities. The difficulties in measurement and verification (M&V) of “Negawatts” are an important and often overlooked barrier to their greater application. M&V is a prerequisite to assess the performance of any energy, water, or CO2-saving measure, and to quantify the savings into physical and monetary units for reporting, re-financing, GHG accounting, or other purposes. However, in practice, M&V is often perceived (particularly by clients) as cumbersome, incomprehensible, and costly. In the broader context, energy cost savings alone are often not a sufficiently strong project driver because they lack strategic relevance for decision makers. As “Multiple Benefits” of EE become better understood, the value of quantifying savings to a high degree of accuracy may be declining, creating opportunities for more flexible M&V standards. As a new methodology, this conceptual paper proposes to combine simplified M&V (sM&V) for individual EE measures with quality assurance instruments (QAIs) to verify functionality. This “sM&V + QAI” approach is less cumbersome, less costly, and easier to comprehend than standard M&V approaches, particularly by clients, financiers, and other non-M&V experts. It has been reviewed by international experts and successfully tested and evaluated in the field. Multiple case studies are reported to verify its practical feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In European countries, there is a growing interest in integrating traditional statistical sources on the labour market with online job ads. They offer detailed and timely information on the use of the Internet for recruiting and the specific skills required at different levels (particularly at a territorial and sectoral level). In this context, this paper proposes an analysis of the similarity between the Italian regions regarding required skills by employers. The study looks at a specific group of innovation-related occupations, ICT professionals, that are believed to be sufficiently represented by online data. The results highlight a regional gap in the use of online offers and differences in professional profiles regarding required skills. Finally, regional skill similarities are compared with some regional features related to the labour market and training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy discourse is multifaceted, encompassing energy creation, storage, and conservation. Beyond the imperative of conserving energy consumption, effective energy management is a critical aspect of achieving overall energy efficiency. Despite being traditionally regarded as low electricity consumers, retailers play a pivotal role in economic activity. While categorized as non-productive energy users, the retail industry operates numerous establishments, facing substantial energy costs that make energy management integral to its operations. Historically, smaller retail stores have lacked awareness of energy saving. However, by connecting these stores, even modest reductions in individual electricity consumption can yield significant overall energy savings. This study aims to investigate the feasibility of implementing the demand-side management (DSM) aggregator model in the retail industry. Through surveys on awareness of energy saving and the application of deep learning techniques to analyze the effectiveness of the Aggregator model, the results reveal that the mean squared prediction error (MSPE) of this research is below 2.05%. This indicates substantial accuracy and offers meaningful reference value for Energy Service Company (ESCO) providers. The findings contribute practical recommendations for the sustainable and competitive implementation of DSM energy management practices in smart cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-family building renovation represents a key policy area at the same time, predominantly affects the daily life of residents. The paper tackles the energy renovations of multi-family buildings in Latvia. Specifically, it investigates how the renovation process affects the residents’ health and well-being, their perception, and their understanding of the renovation process. To evaluate the residents’ perception, a survey was conducted in thirteen buildings renovated using energy performance contracting to assess the preparation, execution, and impact of the renovation project. The survey revealed the lack of communication between the parties involved and co-design as the roadblocks to upscale the renovation process in Latvia using energy performance contracting. The paper shows aspects of the process that need to be improved to scale up the renovation in Latvia.

The rapidly changing labor market and the promotion of labor mobility lead to a demand for lifelong learning as well as the need for transparency and comparability of competencies. The application of skill classifications to describe competencies on educational certificates provides a way to document lifelong learning in a standardized way. In this paper, case studies regarding the application of the ESCO classification in three continuing education institutions are described. The results show that ESCO is a useful tool to document learning outcomes of continuing education courses in a comparable and transparent way but the mapping of competencies requires a lot of effort and differs in quality. The presented analysis identifies steps for further development of ESCO and for the change process when it comes to the standardized documentation of skills and competencies.

The energy discourse is multifaceted, encompassing energy creation, storage, and conservation. Beyond the imperative of conserving energy consumption, effective energy management is a critical aspect of achieving overall energy efficiency. Despite being traditionally regarded as low electricity consumers, retailers play a pivotal role in economic activity. While categorized as non-productive energy users, the retail industry operates numerous establishments, facing substantial energy costs that make energy management integral to its operations. Historically, smaller retail stores have lacked awareness of energy saving. However, by connecting these stores, even modest reductions in individual electricity consumption can yield significant overall energy savings. This study aims to investigate the feasibility of implementing the demand-side management (DSM) aggregator model in the retail industry. Through surveys on awareness of energy saving and the application of deep learning techniques to analyze the effectiveness of the Aggregator model, the results reveal that the mean squared prediction error (MSPE) of this research is below 2.05%. This indicates substantial accuracy and offers meaningful reference value for Energy Service Company (ESCO) providers. The findings contribute practical recommendations for the sustainable and competitive implementation of DSM energy management practices in smart cities.

Despite the increasing complexity of problems and growing demand for stakeholder collaboration in the design for sustainability, there is a lack of methodology for understanding complex stakeholder needs and their relationships. This study proposes the need network analysis, a process of investigating the need structures based on need mapping and network analysis. We demonstrate its effectiveness in an empirical study to diagnose the energy service companies in South Korea. Based on the surveys and interviews with stakeholders, we identified their pain points and the problems that have put the industry in gridlock. We report the findings and discuss their implications to sustainable service ecosystem design that involves highly complex sociotechnical problems and policy innovations for the Korean ESCO industry.

Considering the constraints of carbon trading policy, manufacturers have strengthened joint emission reduction with energy service company (ESCO). In view of the capital constraint of ESCO and the demand risk of the manufacturer, in order to promote better cooperation between the manufacturer and ESCO, the influence of manufacturer's risk aversion on supply chain performance is studied. In this paper, we use the mean-variance (MV) model to construct the two-echelon supply chain models of manufacturer's non-shareholding ESCO, manufacturer's shareholding ESCO and manufacturer's shareholding ESCO under risk aversion, respectively. This paper studies the risk aversion strategy of manufacturer's shareholding ESCO, discusses the influence of relevant parameters on decision variables, and analyses the influence of different shareholding proportion and risk aversion coefficient on profit through numerical analysis. The results show that the emission reduction of ESCO and the selling price of the manufacturer are increased when the manufacturer chooses the appropriate shareholding proportion, and interestingly, the manufacturer's shareholding in ESCO will also increase its emission reduction price. However, in order to avoid the risk of equity investment, manufacturers adopt the strategy of reducing the price of emission reduction and sales price, but this behavior will not only reduce their own profits, but also make the emission reduction lower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the research, we have developed an operational concept based on new energy generation devices, which, in addition to providing heat and electricity, guarantees uninterrupted supply locally and the sale of system services off-site. Based on international experience in the sector, the overall business concept needs to be developed for successful pilot projects. The trends in the technical-economic and regulatory environment examined show that the direction of change, with uncertain outcomes today, is unanimous: they all support the market penetration and the continued profitability of small-scale power plant devices suitable for secondary regulation. An important task is to identify unique elements in the value propositions. The aim of the research is to identify which of the factors such as realized price differential, heat-side revenues, generation utilization, optimized plant operation, scaling, etc. have an impact on the investment, operation, as well as the overall business model and profitability, and to what extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creditworthiness assessment was one of the first areas to apply machine learning techniques in economics. The creditworthiness of retrofit protection was vital for ESCO in determining the credit scoring. This study aimed to develop a retrofitting assessment model to utilize machine learning with multinomial logistic (MNL) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA). This study aims to provide an evaluation of creditworthiness models from the evaluation of financing alternative in Indonesia's energy efficiency industry. The goal was to reduce the total of prediction error, which comprised bias, variance, and fundamental error. The findings demonstrated that machine learning approaches might yield significantly greater prediction accuracy. In addition, machine learning is also expected to automatically capture the nonlinear relationship between input features and selected results. This study is also expected to draw on ideas from machine learning to develop an enhanced model for retrofitting creditworthiness research and suggest new research directions.

Growing research interests in energy service companies (ESCOs) has led to an increase in published research spanning the past decade. However, attempts to map global ESCO-related research have been sparse. The aim of this paper is to map the trends in ESCO, to appraise the state of the field in global ESCO research, and to identify current research gaps. This is achieved by conducting a systematic literature review and qualitative analysis of recently published research papers. The study uses bibliographic, co-citation, and keyword analysis to identify recent trends in global ESCO research. The results show that the aspects of ESCO that most studies have focused on are business models, market development, barriers, and drivers of ESCO, stakeholders in ESCO, energy performance contracts, and risk management in ESCO. In addition, the study identifies two main research gaps in ESCO research. These are public-private partnerships in ESCO programs and the development of a harmonised measurement and verification method for energy savings as the research gaps in ESCO studies. The outcomes of this study would be useful for understanding current developments in global ESCO research and to guide the next frontier in the subject. • A systematic literature review on ESCo research published between 2013 and 2023. • ESCo research source Journals and focus areas have been identified. • Business models and market development are top ESCO research focuses. • Highlighted influential journals in ESCO research: Energy Policy, Sustainability. • Future ESCO research trends: EPC risk management and market evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economists and other social scientists are increasingly leveraging web data to tackle socio-economic issues and integrate existing sources of information. The data generated by online platforms and websites offer a wealth of multidimensional information with diverse potential applications in economic analysis. Online job advertisement data, for instance, allows us to enhance our understanding of the labour market by providing timely insights into business demand and the skills required for various job positions. This paper examines skill similarities at the regional level in Italy and the variations in skills sought by businesses over time using Lightcast data for 2019 and 2020. In light of this, we use two measures related to the regional skill similarities, an index for the regional skill changes, jointly with some features of the local economy, in order to provide a picture of Italian regions. • We analysed online job ads data to study similarities and changes (between 2019 and 2020) in the skill sets across Italian regions. • We used the ESCO taxonomy to apply an index of by-occupation skill importance. Moreover, we made use of special statistical methods to face sparse data in the computation of regional skill similarity. • We found a different pattern of skill similarity and skill change across regions that partially reflects the North-South divide. • We interpreted these findings by also considering variables expressing the dynamism and innovation of the regions in terms of business turnover and youth entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The novel generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed by OpenAI, i.e., ChatGPT, rised a great interest in both scientific and business contexts. This new wave of technological advancement typically produces deep transformation in the workplace, requiring new skills. However, none of the studies in literature provide quantitative analysis and measures on the impact of ChatGPT on human skills. To address this gap, we collected a database of 616,073 tweets about ChatGPT, and used Natural Language Processing techniques to identify the tasks users requested ChatGPT to perform, and the sentiment related to these tasks. Then, we compared these tasks with a standard taxonomy of skills (i.e., ESCO) using BERT. The results of the study underline that ChatGPT impacts 185 different skills. Moreover, we proposed a model to represent the interaction of the user and ChatGPT, useful to define four skills which are emerging for using this new technology. • We propose a quantitative analysis of the impact of ChatGPT on human skills; • We present a model to represent the interaction between a user and ChatGPT; • We found that ChatGPT impacts 185 different skills; • We identified that four skills are emerging from the interaction with ChatGPT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the ambitious policy target to become net zero carbon by 2050, what role can local authorities play in the decarbonisation of housing? An examination is presented of six local authority energy service models relevant to housing retrofit in Britain. Local authorities have an important role, with local knowledge about housing stock and economic opportunities; they also have relevant planning and governance responsibilities. However, relatively little is known about either the different energy service models adopted for retrofit or their relative effectiveness. Models identified from empirical case study research constitute experimental innovations resulting from constrained finances and competition requirements in public services. They provided (1) energy-efficiency upgrades to public, residential and commercial buildings and/or (2) district heating infrastructure to secure ‘upstream’ resource efficiencies. Findings show that local initiatives provided different retrofit mixes, with differing potential for effective change. The limitations of current models are considered, along with the policy and market changes needed to empower local authorities to contribute systematically to net zero carbon buildings. 'Policy relevance' How can British local authorities organise energy-efficiency retrofit in buildings? Six energy service models are identified which deliver on-site energy-efficiency upgrades and/or area-based efficient heating infrastructure. Reductions to energy demand from these models tend to fall short of the radical changes required by UK net zero 2050 goals. Whilst the energy service models provide examples of local innovation and effectiveness, much more ambitious policy is essential to enable a step change in energy service models for retrofit. Policy and regulatory changes are needed: first, to reform the energy retail market to support energy services geared to reducing demand; and second, to empower local authorities and their partners to scale up whole-area retrofitting, including privately owned buildings.

The competencies standards for the occupational information are expressed by classification of identifies and categorizes skills, competencies, qualifications, and occupations relevant for labor market and education. Based on the knowledge, skills, competencies factor's relationship analysis the metadata profile can be generated. However, there is a problem with visualization of an occupational competence or set of competence related to occupational information. In the paper, some useful dashboard's concept for occupational competence visualization is presented. The proposed dashboard is driven, visualization intensive, interactive, and directly supports data exploration, reporting, and decision making. All competence visualization is based on the ESCO dataset. We want to show how competence's visualization can be helpful during job selection or education path selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research suggests that new technologies are important drivers of empirically observed labour market polarisation. Many analyses in the field of economics are conducted to evaluate the changing share of employment in low-skill, medium-skill and high-skill occupations over time. This occupation-based approach, however, may neglect the relevance of specific skills and skill bundles, which potentially can be used to explain the observable patterns of labour market polarisation. This paper adds to the literature in two ways: First, we present the results of an analysis of data on job vacancies rather than the currently employed and, second, we derive occupation-defining skills using network analysis tools. The analysis and tool usage allowed us to investigate polarisation patterns in Austrian vacancy data from 2007 to 2017 and identify changes in the skills demanded in job vacancies in Austria. In contrast to most previous research, we find no evidence for polarisation, but rather a trend towards upskilling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. energy service company (ESCO) industry is an example of a private sector business model where energy savings are delivered to customers primarily through the use of performance-based contracts. This study was conceived as a snapshot of the ESCO industry prior to the economic slowdown and the introduction of federal stimulus funding mandated by enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). This study utilizes two parallel analytic approaches to characterize ESCO industry and market trends in the U.S.: (1) a ?top-down? approach involving a survey of individual ESCOs to estimate aggregate industry activity and (2) a ?bottom-up? analysis of a database of ~;;3,250 projects (representing over $8B in project investment) that reports market trends including installed EE retrofit strategies, project installation costs and savings, project payback times, and benefit-cost ratios over time. Despite the onset of a severe economic recession, the U.S. ESCO industry managed to grow at about 7percent per year between 2006 and 2008. ESCO industry revenues were about $4.1 billion in 2008 and ESCOs anticipate accelerated growth through 2011 (25percent per year). We found that 2,484 ESCO projects in our database generated ~;;$4.0 billion ($2009) in net, direct economic benefits to their customers. We estimate that the ESCO project database includes about 20percent of all U.S. ESCO market activity from 1990-2008. Assuming the net benefits per project are comparable for ESCO projects that are not included in the LBNL database, this would suggest that the ESCO industry has generated ~;;$23 billion in net direct economic benefits for customers at projects installed between 1990 and 2008. There is empirical evidence confirming that the industry is evolving by installing more comprehensive and complex measures?including onsite generation and measures to address deferred maintenance?but this evolution has significant implications for customer project economics, especially at K-12 schools. We found that the median simple payback time has increased from 1.9 to 3.2 years in private sector projects since the early-to-mid 1990s and from 5.2 to 10.5 years in public sector projects for the same time period.

This paper evaluates the issue of non-energy benefits within the context of the U.S. energyservices company (ESCO) industry?a growing industry comprised of companies that provide energy savings and other benefits to customers through the use of performance-based contracting. Recent analysis has found that ESCO projects in the public/institutional sector, especially at K-12 schools, are using performance-based contracting, at the behest of the customers, to partially -- but not fully -- offset substantial accumulated deferred maintenance needs (e.g., asbestos removal, wiring) and measures that have very long paybacks (roof replacement). This trend is affecting the traditional economic measures policymakers use to evaluate success on a benefit to cost basis. Moreover, the value of non-energy benefits which can offset some or all of the cost of the non-energy measures -- including operations and maintenance (O&M) savings, avoided capital costs, and tradable pollution emissions allowances-- are not always incorporated into a formal cost-effectiveness analysis of ESCO projects. Nonenergybenefits are clearly important to customers, but state and federal laws that govern theacceptance of these types of benefits for ESCO projects vary widely (i.e., 0-100percent of allowable savings can come from one or more non-energy categories). Clear and consistent guidance on what types of savings are recognized in Energy Savings agreements under performance contracts is necessary, particularly where customers are searching for deep energy efficiency gains in the building sector.

The article presents a way to create university programs that will ease the recognition of qualifications using ISCO and ESCO. A new European model based on the American model for engineers created by the American Association of Engineering Societies is presented. The model has the advantage of being based on internationally recognized standards. It can be applied to higher and professional education, learning outcomes need to be established with the employers based on the ESCO. competences. The proposed model is easy to apply and understandable creating also a hierarchy of skills according to ISCO taxonomy. As the applied models will be created, for example for technical/ economy domain, they will be further presented. The application of these models and the need to recognize the qualifications lead to the need for automatic systems for monitoring and recording all formal, informal or non-formal learning activities throughout an individual’s life and also his experience.

The urgency of developing approaches to the integration of the market of educational services with the labor market through the transition from qualification models to full-fledged competence ones on base of implementation of the "passport of acquired competences" that accompanies a person throughout his/her personality development and professional career is substantiated. Theoretical researches in the field of processing of information about acquired qualifications and competencies as well as tools that are built on their basis are analyzed. The ESCO classifier which unites the labor markets of various EU member states, allows job seekers and employers to operate more effectively with information of result of learning. The main limitations of existing approaches are identified; ways of solving these problems by means of information processing at the semantic level are suggested. Modern information technologies focused on processing distributed heterogeneous Web resources are considered, and the most suitable ones for solving this problem are identified. The principles of developing the information system UkrESCO, which is designed for semantic processing of information resources about acquired qualifications and competencies based on the model of the multilingual skills classifier, competencies, qualifications and occupations of ESCO, relevant for the European market of work, education and vocational training, are theoretically grounded. This system is based on Semantic Web technologies and solutions, namely software agents, Web services and ontologies. The generalized architecture of UkrESCO system and its ontological model are proposed. The scheme of the UkrESCO interaction with external retrieval systems and structured information resources which are based on Wiki-technology is proposed. This scheme provides access to the knowledge of the subject domain and the update of information about the subjects of the labour market. Use of the UkrESCO ontology allows to perform a semantic retrieval on the Web and find both natural language information resources with certain properties as well as ensure the interaction of the UkrESCO with semantically marked resources.

Given the ambitious policy target to become net zero carbon by 2050, what role can local authorities play in the decarbonisation of housing? An examination is presented of six local authority energy service models relevant to housing retrofit in Britain. Local authorities have an important role, with local knowledge about housing stock and economic opportunities; they also have relevant planning and governance responsibilities. However, relatively little is known about either the different energy service models adopted for retrofit or their relative effectiveness. Models identified from empirical case study research constitute experimental innovations resulting from constrained finances and competition requirements in public services. They provided (1) energy-efficiency upgrades to public, residential and commercial buildings and/or (2) district heating infrastructure to secure 'upstream' resource efficiencies. Findings show that local initiatives provided different retrofit mixes, with differing potential for effective change. The limitations of current models are considered, along with the policy and market changes needed to empower local authorities to contribute systematically to net zero carbon buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is focused on developing an Energy Service Company (ESCO) risk assessment model for use by energy savings certificates (ESC) market regulators. This model enables market regulators to determine the appropriate point in time for ESCOs to sell their certificates with the aim of minimizing risk as well as maximizing economic gain yet remain motivated for reducing the cost of energy efficiency technologies. To this end, the interactions between an ESCO and other parties (such as suppliers) in the market in addition to the principles of the energy efficiency performance contract are taken into consideration. Then, appropriate probability distributions have been fitted to the stochastic variables to be applied in the Net Present Value (NPV) function, based on sampled company data. A case study considers a one MW Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) implementation in Iran's petrochemical industry. The finding of this study shows if the ESCO is allowed to sell the certificates during the first seven years as well reduce 30% of the investment cost, the expected Net Present Value over Investment Cost (NPV/I) savings will cover more than one cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formula of engaging an energy service company (ESCO) in Poland is not a new form of accounting for investments in improving energy efficiency. The results of our survey confirm that many entities still lack sufficient knowledge about this subject. The research problem this paper is concerned with is the conditions of applying the ESCO formula (a model of investment financing with the participation of a specialised company) to support local government units and enterprises in energy-industry project development. For the purpose of this study, the research questions were formulated to analyse of the following issues: the reasons for interest in the ESCO formula and the sources of knowledge about this solution; activities and other factors that can increase or reduce interest in the ESCO formula; services in terms of ESCO formula implementation; the attractiveness of alternative instruments for financing energy industry projects, the benefits of using the ESCO formula and the influence of current and future target groups on ESCO formula development in Poland. This paper, therefore aims to recognise the conditions under which the ESCO formula can be applied by local government units and enterprises implementing energy industry projects in Poland. The research problem was solved using a triangulation of research methods: empirical qualitative research (desk research analysis, individual in-depth interviews, computer-assisted web interview (CAWI) survey, and focus group interviews) and one of the foresight methods (an expert panel). The research revealed that the lack of knowledge amongst local government units and enterprises with regard to the ESCO formula, although not unique to Poland, is insufficient to explain the low level of interest in this solution. One of the key conclusions is the need to educate local government units and enterprises on energy efficiency. This is vital to arouse their interest in the more complex ESCO implementation solutions that they have not yet investigated. Furthermore, by following and analysing the project implementation process in the ESCO formula, we can conclude that the risk generated is primarily on the part of the energy service company itself. For this reason, it is doubtful that energy service companies will invest the equity necessary to develop this challenging market. Based on the research conclusions, we indicate some recommendations that the government and related public institutions should consider in order to boost this market and support ESCO companies.

The aim of the Minsk group of OSCE established on March 1992 was to mediate the peaceful solution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: “From December 1996, the Minsk Group is co-chaired by three states – Russia, the United States and France. But unfortunately the conflict still remains unresolved. Zero progress has been reached so far in the negotiation mediated by the Minsk group. Armenia is not interested in resolution of the conflict. It tends to keep the position of neither fire, nor peace. But in the early April of 2016, as result of subversion of Armenian armed forces the tension in the contact line of troops which was followed by numerous human causalities, once more confirmed that remaining the conflict frozen might would always cause the intense war.” But the international mediators for some reason wouldn’t demonstrate any unequivocal position upon this case although they support the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. It is expected that the members of the Minsk group of the OSCE, as well as global community would take precise measures to solve this problem fairly. Failure to adhere to the principle of justice would draw to crisis not only the region, but also worldwide. The reality is that, the USA, Russia and France wouldn’t bring the aggressor down as a neither permanent member of the UN SC, nor as a member states. It is a painful and thought-provoking truth, but it is still the case.

The article presents a way to create university programs that will ease the recognition of qualifications using ISCO and ESCO. A new European model based on the American model for engineers created by the American Association of Engineering Societies is presented. The model has the advantage of being based on internationally recognized standards. It can be applied to higher and professional education, learning outcomes need to be established with the employers based on the ESCO. competences. The proposed model is easy to apply and understandable creating also a hierarchy of skills according to ISCO taxonomy. As the applied models will be created, for example for technical/ economy domain, they will be further presented. The application of these models and the need to recognize the qualifications lead to the need for automatic systems for monitoring and recording all formal, informal or non-formal learning activities throughout an individual's life and also his experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]