The purpose of this study was (1) to develop a methodology and a policy tool - a skills monitoring index - that can be used to evaluate the performance of EU Member States’ skills systems (e.g. in terms of skill development, activation and utilisation) and (2) use a ‘risk-based approach’ in order to identify priority occupations that are susceptible to skill mismatch (i.e. skill shortages or surpluses) and are of high economic importance in each EU Member State. The study was commissioned by Cedefop and conducted in cooperation with Cambridge Econometrics and 3s. The study was implemented in 2014-2015.