ISCED

The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) is an internationally recognised UNESCO classification. The classification allows the allocation of qualifications into levels and thus enables a cross-national comparison of education-related information from national education systems which differ in structure and content (OECD 2015: 3; UNESCO 2012: 6; UNESCO 2012: iii).
The ISCED serves as a basis for statistics on education systems and qualifications. Aspects of ISCED are incorporated into the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) and the German Classification of Occupations (KldB) of 2010 (cf. Bohlinger 2012: 16).
In addition to levels, further information can be coded, e.g. on the orientation of qualifications. In the three versions of ISCED from 1976, 1997 and 2011, the number of levels and the structure of the additional information that one can code differ from each other (cf. Schneider 2013: 370f).