Australia
Indigenous peoples have rightful aspirations for their languages and cultures, supported under international conventions, jurisdictional treaties, laws, policies and enquiry recommendations. Additionally, the inclusion of Indigenous languages in education can impact positively on Indigenous students’ learning, engagement, identity and well-being, and can increase involvement of their communities in education. This working paper provides an overview of Indigenous languages learning in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and Canada. These three jurisdictions participate in an OECD initiative Promising Practices in Supporting Success for Indigenous Students, designed to help education systems to improve the experiences and outcomes of Indigenous students in education. The significance of Indigenous languages constitutes common ground between the diverse Indigenous peoples in these three countries. But learning in Indigenous languages and learning Indigenous languages follow diverse pathways with local language programme designs that fit the different historical and contemporary language contexts within and between the countries.
The paper is the second in a series of two papers mapping young people’s environmental sustainability competence in EU and OECD countries that were prepared as background for the forthcoming OECD Skills Outlook 2023 publication. The papers are the results of a collaboration between the OECD Centre for Skills and the European Commission - Joint Research Centre (Unit B4) on students’ environmental sustainability competence. The first paper is titled ‘Young people’s environmental sustainability competence: Emotional, cognitive, behavioural and attitudinal dimensions in EU and OECD countries.
The paper is the first in a series of two papers mapping young people’s environmental sustainability competence in EU and OECD countries that were prepared as background for the forthcoming OECD Skills Outlook 2023 publication. The papers are the results of a collaboration between the OECD Centre for Skills and the European Commission - Joint Research Centre (Unit B4) on students’ environmental sustainability competence. The second paper is titled: ‘The environmental sustainability competence toolbox: From leaving a better planet to our children to leaving better children for our planet’.
There is a discernible and growing gap between the qualifications that a university degree certifies and the actual generic, 21st-century skills with which students graduate from higher education. By generic skills, it is meant literacy and critical thinking skills encompassing problem solving, analytic reasoning and communications competency. As automation takes over non- and lower-cognitive tasks in today’s workplace, these generic skills are especially valued but a tertiary degree is a poor indicator of skills level. In the United States, the Council for Aid for Education developed an assessment of generic skills called the CLA+ and carried out testing in six countries between 2016 and 2021. This book provides the data and analysis of this “CLA+ International Initiative”.
This dataset comprises statistics on different transactions and balances to get from the GDP to the net lending/borrowing. It includes national disposable income (gross and net), consumption of fixed capital as well as net savings. It also includes transaction components such as net current transfers and net capital transfers. Data are expressed in millions of national currency as well as US dollars and available in both current and constant prices. Data are provided from 1950 onwards.
Gross domestic product (GDP) is the standard measure of the value of final goods and services produced by a country during a period minus the value of imports. This subset of Aggregate National Accounts comprises comprehensive statistics on gross domestic product (GDP) by presenting the three different approaches of its measure of GDP: output based GDP, expenditure based GDP and income based GDP. These three different measures of gross domestic product (GDP) are further detailed by transactions whereby: the output approach includes gross value added at basic prices, taxes less subsidies, statistical discrepancy; the expenditure approach includes domestic demand, gross capital formation, external balance of goods and services; and the income approach includes variables such as compensation of employees, gross operating surplus, taxes and production and imports. Gross domestic product (GDP) data are measured in national currency and are available in current prices, constant prices and per capita starting from 1950 onwards.
The Pensions at a Glance database includes reliable and internationally comparable statistics on public and mandatory and voluntary pensions. It covers 34 OECD countries and aims to cover all G20 countries. Pensions at a Glance reviews and analyses the pension measures enacted or legislated in OECD countries. It provides an in-depth review of the first layer of protection of the elderly, first-tier pensions across countries and provideds a comprehensive selection of pension policy indicators for all OECD and G20 countries.
This dataset contains tax revenue collected by Australia. It provides detailed tax revenues by sector (Supranational, Federal or Central Government, State or Lander Government, Local Government, and Social Security Funds) and by specific tax, such as capital gains, profits and income, property, sales, etc.
This dataset contains data on metropolitan regions with demographic, labour, innovation and economic statistics by population, regional surface, population density, labour force, employment, unemployment, GDP, GDP per capita, PCT patent applications, and elderly dependency ratio.
This annual publication compiles comparable tax revenue statistics for Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, People’s Republic of China, Cook Islands, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nauru, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Tokelau, Vanuatu and Viet Nam. It also provides information on non-tax revenues for selected economies. Based on the OECD Global Revenue Statistics database, the publication applies the OECD methodology to Asian and Pacific economies to enable comparison of tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among the economies of the region and with other economies worldwide. This edition includes a special feature on strengthening tax revenues in developing Asia. The publication is jointly produced by the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration and the OECD Development Centre, in co-operation with the Asian Development Bank, the Pacific Island Tax Administrators Association and the Pacific Community.
In a rapidly changing world of work, adults in Australia are being challenged to upskill, retrain and consider alternative career paths. Mid-career adults are in a unique position: they have acquired considerable skills and work experience but still have many years left in the labour market before retirement. They thus may need help to build on their existing skills to progress but have time before retirement to recoup their training investments. If well designed, career guidance can facilitate employment transitions for this group and usefully inform their training choices. This report assesses the career guidance services that are currently available to mid-career adults in Australia and puts them into an international perspective. New online survey data shows Australia performs well in OECD comparison with respect to the use of career guidance services, but there is room to strengthen the inclusiveness of these services and to tailor them to the needs of mid-career adults. The report provides concrete recommendations in this regard.
OECD countries deliver publicly-funded employment services through different institutional arrangements. While in most OECD countries the majority of such services are delivered by public employment services, in two in five OECD and EU countries (or regions) they are partly or fully contracted out to external providers, including for-profit and not-for-profit entities. Contracting out employment services to outside providers offers many potential benefits: an increased flexibility to scale capacity in line with changes in unemployment, the possibility of offering services more cost-effectively, the option to better tailor services through the use of specialised service providers and the possibility to offer jobseekers choice of providers. However, achieving these benefits will depend on the actual design and monitoring of the contracting arrangements that are put in place. Focusing on the job brokerage, counselling and case-management employment services typically provided by public agencies, this paper reviews the experiences of OECD countries that have contracted out employment services through outcome-based payment schemes. It highlights the need to carefully consider questions related to the design and implementation of this form of contracting: fostering competition amongst potential providers, setting appropriate minimum service requirements and prices for different client groups, and ensuring the accountability of providers through monitoring and evaluations. These issues are discussed based on country examples, which are also detailed in factsheets contained in the online annex of the paper.
Australia’s financial sector entered the COVID-19 crisis in a strong position, enabling it to play a key role in cushioning the pandemic’s impact. Once the national economy reopens, policymakers will turn their focus to securing a robust, sustainable and inclusive recovery. However, low interest rates are boosting house prices and demand for credit in a banking sector that is already highly exposed to housing and highly indebted households. At the same time, many young and innovative firms – which are the drivers of job creation and productivity growth - struggle to access finance. And financial frictions impede the alignment of financial flows with environmental sustainability. Addressing these obstacles, through regulatory change, developing alternatives to bank finance and facilitating technological transformation, would raise productivity and set the recovery on a more sustainable path. Financial inclusion and financial literacy are comparatively high and financial education is entrenched at schools. Further efforts are still needed to address persistent gaps in outcomes for disadvantaged groups, accompanied by stronger consumer protections to ensure that the recovery is inclusive.
L'apprentissage, le développement et le bien-être des enfants sont directement influencés par leurs interactions quotidiennes avec les autres enfants, les adultes, leur famille et l'environnement. Ce processus interactif est connu sous le nom de « qualité du processus » et conduit à une question clé: quelles politiques établissent les meilleures conditions pour que les enfants vivent des interactions de haute qualité dans les établissements d'éducation et d'accueil de la petite enfance (EAJE) ?
Ce rapport examine cinq principaux leviers politiques et leur effet sur la qualité des processus, en se concentrant particulièrement sur les programmes et la pédagogie, et le développement de la main-d'œuvre. Il présente des indicateurs couvrant 26 pays et juridictions, 56 cadres curriculaires différents et plus de 120 types différents d'établissements d'EAJE.
Alors que la récession provoquée en 2020 par la pandémie s’est révélée moins brutale en Australie que dans la plupart des autres économies de l’OCDE, de récentes vagues de propagation ont poussé le pays à commencer à passer d’une politique de tolérance zéro face au virus à une stratégie d’endiguement. À mesure que la reprise s’installe plus fermement, les pouvoirs publics doivent s’attacher à instaurer les conditions propices à une nouvelle longue période d’élévation substantielle et équitablement répartie des niveaux de vie. Il faudrait poursuivre les efforts engagés récemment pour réduire les obstacles réglementaires, administratifs et financiers auxquels se heurtent les jeunes entreprises très prometteuses. Par ailleurs, pour renforcer la résilience de l’économie australienne aux chocs économiques futurs, il conviendrait de repenser les cadres institutionnels liés aux politiques budgétaire et monétaire, garantir un filet de sécurité sociale adapté et faire en sorte que le secteur financier soutienne la résilience financière des ménages. L’Australie se trouve dans une position tout particulièrement vulnérable face aux changements climatiques, mais elle est aussi idéalement placée pour tirer un avantage économique de la décarbonation de l’économie mondiale, grâce à sa dotation en ressources naturelles (exposition au vent, ensoleillement, accès à la mer, etc.) et à son solide capital humain capable de porter l’innovation en matière de technologies de réduction des émissions de carbone. Il sera primordial d’élaborer une stratégie nationale cohérente et bien coordonnée établissant des objectifs clairs et précisant les paramètres de l’action publique nécessaires pour atteindre les objectifs de réduction des émissions fixés par le gouvernement.
THÈME SPÉCIAL : LE RÔLE DU SECTEUR FINANCIER DANS UNE REPRISE DURABLE ET INCLUSIVE
This report offers an initial overview of the available information regarding the circumstances, nature and outcomes of the education of schoolchildren during the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns of March-April 2020. Its purpose is primarily descriptive: it presents information from high quality quantitative studies on the experience of learning during this period in order to ground the examination and discussion of these issues in empirical examples. Information is presented on three interrelated topics: the nature of the educational experience during the period of lockdowns and school closures; the home environment in which education took place for the vast majority of schoolchildren; the effects on the mental health and learning outcomes for children during this period. The data come primarily from 5 countries (France, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States) with additional information on some aspects for 6 additional countries (Australia, Belgium (Flanders), Canada, Finland, Italy and the Netherlands).
This report will be of interest to policy makers, academics, education stakeholders and anyone interested in a first international empirical analysis of the effects of the pandemic on the lives and education of schoolchildren.
COVID-19 is likely to leave long-lasting effects on local labour markets. It is accelerating a pre-existing trend towards automation, as firms look even more to new technologies to pandemic proof their operations. While automation offers the opportunity to boost productivity, it can also lead to job polarisation as vulnerable workers who lose their jobs may not have the skills needed in a changing labour market. This OECD report examines the potential impacts of automation on people and places across Australia. It also sheds light on policies and programmes that can help regions and cities to prepare for the future of work.
The pandemic recession in 2020 was milder than in most other OECD countries, but recent outbreaks have prompted the country to begin transitioning from a zero tolerance to a containment approach to the virus. As the recovery becomes more firmly entrenched, public policy must focus on setting the conditions for another prolonged period of strong and well-distributed growth in living standards. Recent efforts to reduce regulatory, administrative and financial barriers for young high potential firms should continue. At the same time, the resilience of the economy to future economic shocks can be supported by rethinking institutional frameworks related to fiscal and monetary policy, ensuring the social safety net is adequate and that the financial sector supports household financial resilience. Australia is uniquely vulnerable to climate change, but it is also uniquely placed to benefit economically from global decarbonisation due to its natural endowments (e.g. wind, sun, ocean access) and strong human capital to form the basis of innovation in carbon abatement technologies. A coherent and coordinated national strategy that defines clear goals and corresponding policy settings for achieving the government’s emission reduction objectives will be critical.
SPECIAL FEATURE: THE ROLE OF THE FINANCIAL SECTOR IN SUPPORTING A SUSTAINABLE AND INCLUSIVE RECOVERY