Using tag clouds to support the comparison of qualifications, Résumés and job profiles

The labor market is today characterized by a marked competitiveness. The ability to accurately choose the right education and training paths leading to the acquisition of the right competences required for a given job position, as well as the capability to properly select human resources based on precise job requirements are becoming more and more key factors to success. Nevertheless, the comparison of education opportunities generally requires a manual analysis of huge qualification descriptions and course syllabi, whereas staff selection (or job seeking activities) often relies on non-automated processes mainly based on an extensive check of applicants' curriculum vitae (or of possible job offers). The above tasks are extremely time consuming and, given the large amount of information to be considered, they also risk to provide unsatisfactory results. In this paper, the above issues are addressed in the perspective of semantic technologies. In particular, a web-based application is presented, which exploits ontological descriptions and tag cloud-based visualization strategies to generate a direct representation of the overlap between learners' needs and existing education and training paths, as well as between job seekers' profiles and company requirements. This way, potential users are provided with an effective support for matching job and study offers with corresponding demands.