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Policy makers around the world recognise the importance of developing young people’s 21st century skills like problem solving, creative thinking, self-regulation and collaboration. Many countries also include these skills as part of the intended learning outcomes of their education systems. To shift intention into practice, educational assessments need to better measure what matters. Innovative assessments are needed that combine conceptual, technological and methodological advances in educational measurement.
This report explores new approaches to measuring complex skills through a practical and applied assessment design lens, bringing together perspectives from leading experts to consider what we can learn from the learning sciences to define more authentic assessment experiences and expand the range of skills we are able to measure in both disciplinary and cross-disciplinary contexts of practice. The report also examines how technology can expand our possibilities for innovation, including the creation of more interactive and immersive problems and the generation of meaningful sources of potential evidence about students’ proficiency. Finally, the report explores how we can make sense of the rich data captured in interactive digital environments using new analytical approaches, and how we can ensure the valid interpretation and use of results from innovative assessments.
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are ushering in a large and rapid technological transformation. Understanding how AI capabilities relate to human skills and how they develop over time is crucial for understanding this process.
In 2016, the OECD assessed AI capabilities with the OECD’s Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). The present report follows up the earlier study, collecting expert judgements in 2021 on whether computers can solve the PIAAC literacy and numeracy tests. It is part of a comprehensive ongoing project on assessing AI.
This study shows that AI could potentially outperform large shares of the population on PIAAC – 90% of adults in literacy and 57-88% of adults in numeracy. AI’s literacy capabilities had improved considerably since the 2016 assessment. According to experts, AI will solve the entire literacy and numeracy tests by 2026.
These findings have important implications for employment and education. Large shares of the workforce use literacy and numeracy skills daily at work with a proficiency comparable or below that of computers. AI could affect the literacy- and numeracy-related tasks of these workers. In this context, education systems should strengthen the foundation skills of students and workers and teach them to work together with AI.
This report represents the second outcome of the collaboration between the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to improve the measurement and analysis of productivity developments across APO and OECD member economies. The report discusses the potential impact of COVID-19 on productivity and examines the role of Multifactor Productivity (MFP) as a major driver of economic growth and changes in living standards. It then identifies the most important factors influencing MFP growth and describes the most important challenges affecting the measurement of each of these factors as well as the estimation of their impact on MFP. The report provides key recommendations to improve the reliability and interpretation of the empirical evidence for economic analysis.
Early equity for disadvantaged children can be achieved through nurturing, high quality early learning environments. However, without deliberate action, disadvantaged children face a 12 month development gap compared to their more advantaged peers in key early learning areas such as emergent literacy. Data based on direct assessments from 7,000 children in England, Estonia and the United States show what it takes to achieve a level playing field for disadvantaged children. These actions include supporting parents to regularly read with their children, having back-and-forth conversations and providing access to developmentally appropriate books. Links between parents and their early childhood education and care (ECEC) centre are also positively linked to children’s early development, as well as the provision and quality of ECEC. The latter includes a holistic approach to ensure children’s social-emotional skills are fostered, such as curiosity and co-operation, and ensuring children have a level of autonomy over their activities.
The review examines how higher education institutions are supporting innovation and entrepreneurship in their surrounding communities. The study focuses on eleven universities located in six countries in Latin America: Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.
The study finds that selected institutions are actively supporting entrepreneurs (university students, but also local entrepreneurs) through courses, incubation and acceleration activities. It also shows that universities are actively engaging with external stakeholders in their surrounding communities, to spur innovation through joint-research, organisation of events (such as festivals, competition). It finds that that while COVID-19 pandemic brought about some challenges, universities managed to stay afloat and keep a steady stream of support to entrepreneurs and partners. The review also illustrates the challenges that universities face when developing these activities (lack of funding, unclear regulation for intellectual property development, etc.) and highlights some opportunities that universities should leverage, particularly in the current context.
Workers’ skills are an essential asset for firms to recover from the COVID-19 shock and succeed in the twin digital and green transitions. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) face special barriers to investing in human capital because of their size and more limited access to information and capital markets. This report identifies policies that are successful in promoting SMEs’ investment in the skills of employees, managers or entrepreneurs. A review of cost-reducing and financial support instruments is followed by an analysis of initiatives that promote innovative HR practices, a learning culture in the firm, and better co-operation among firms and with the education sector. The report describes the design and rationale of these measures as well as their advantages and limitations. It identifies a common set of features that make skill investment policies especially suitable for SMEs.
Higher education helps learners acquire the knowledge and skills they need to lead productive working lives, and it sparks the innovation that fosters economic growth and social progress. However, creating higher education systems that operate at a high level of research and teaching quality, with responsiveness to social and labour market demands, requires effective public policies and institutional practices. This report, which focuses on funding and governance reforms to improve higher education in the Slovak Republic, is a collaboration between the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM), the Institute for Strategies and Analysis in the Office of the Government of the Slovak Republic and the OECD’s Directorate for Education and Skills. Building on stakeholder engagement and comparative analysis, the report offers an international perspective on the performance of the Slovak higher education system and provides an action plan focused on governance and funding reforms, placing special emphasis on implementation planning to support reform success.
Widespread school closures affected over one billion students during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The vocational education and training (VET) sector has faced particular challenges during the crisis, most notably the fact that the digital learning environments that most education institutions had to rely on during closures don’t work as well for practice-oriented learning – a core component of VET instruction – as they do for academic learning. This report looks at comparative statistics and policy information collected by the OECD across a number of education systems to track the impact of the pandemic on the VET sector.
The COVID-19 crisis has reiterated the importance of adult learning and career guidance services as many adults have lost their jobs and now require upskilling and reskilling opportunities in order to keep pace with the rapidly evolving world of work. Yet, in order to achieve its positive gains, adult training needs to be of high quality and ensure successful learning experiences for all participants. This report therefore aims at supporting public authorities to enhance quality in the field of non-formal adult learning. It provides an overview of quality assurance systems across Europe, highlighting their implementation features, governance structures and success factors. Based on this analysis, the report develops a Quality Assurance in Adult Learning Decision Tree to support the decision-making process of governments that are planning reforms of their quality assurance systems.
Countries need to urgently scale-up and upgrade their adult learning systems to help people adapt to the future world of work. Today, only two in five adults across the EU and OECD participate in education and training in any given year, according to the OECD Survey of Adults Skills. Participation is even lower among disadvantaged adults, such as those with low skill levels or in jobs at high risk of automation. For adult learning systems to be future-ready, governments must increase their efforts to engage more adults in continuous learning throughout their lives.
While much has been written about the need for progress, it is less clear how adult learning participation can be increased in practice. Many good ideas struggle to translate into real change on the ground, as they get stuck in the reality of policy implementation. This report aims to understand the factors that make adult learning reforms succeed. It identifies lessons from six countries that have significantly increased participation over the past decades: Austria, Estonia, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands and Singapore. To shed light on how these countries achieved this objective, this study looks at the details of reform design, implementation and evaluation.
A rise in non-standard work in many countries and an increased fragmentation of worker careers have created new challenges for training policies at a time when structural transformation is creating a need for both re- and up-skilling. Individual learning accounts have received renewed attention from policy makers, due to their ability to make training rights “portable” from one job or employment status to another.
This report examines past and existing individual learning accounts and other individual schemes to finance training, based on a review of the existing literature as well as six new case studies commissioned by the OECD: The Upper Austrian Bildungskonto, the French Compte Personnel de Formation, the Scottish Individual Learning Accounts/Individual Training Accounts, the Singapore SkillsFuture Credit, the Tuscan Carta ILA, and the Individual Training Accounts in Michigan and Washington in the United States. The report takes stock of these experiences and identifies the advantages and disadvantages of such schemes, as well as the key trade-offs and questions to consider in designing a successful scheme, including targeting, funding, participation of under-represented groups and quality issues.
In einer Zeit, in der strukturelle Veränderungen Umschulungen und Höherqualifizierungen notwendig machen, steht die Weiterbildungspolitik aufgrund der in vielen Ländern beobachteten Zunahme atypischer Beschäftigungsformen und der stärkeren Fragmentierung beruflicher Laufbahnen vor neuen Herausforderungen. Individuelle Weiterbildungskonten stoßen bei den Politikverantwortlichen derzeit erneut auf Interesse, da sie die Möglichkeit bieten, Weiterbildungsansprüche von einem Arbeitsplatz oder Erwerbsstatus auf einen anderen zu übertragen.
Dieser Bericht untersucht frühere und bestehende individuelle Weiterbildungskonten und andere individuelle Programme zur Finanzierung weiterführenden Lernens und stützt sich dabei auf die vorhandene Fachliteratur sowie auf sechs neue Fallstudien, die von der OECD in Auftrag gegeben wurden: das oberösterreichische Bildungskonto, das französische Compte Personnel de Formation, die schottischen Individual Learning Accounts/Individual Training Accounts, der singapurische SkillsFuture Credit, die toskanische Carta ILA und die Individual Training Accounts in Michigan und Washington in den Vereinigten Staaten. Der Bericht beschreibt die mit diesen Programmen gemachten Erfahrungen, benennt ihre Vor- und Nachteile sowie die wichtigsten Zielkonflikte und Fragen, die es bei der Konzeption eines erfolgreichen Programms zu beachten gilt, insbesondere Zielgruppenorientierung, Finanzierung, Beteiligung unterrepräsentierter Gruppen und Qualität.
The 2019 edition of the International Migration Outlook analyses recent developments in migration movements and policies in OECD countries and some non-OECD economies. It also examines the evolution of labour market outcomes of immigrants in OECD countries. This year’s edition includes two special chapters, one on the contribution of temporary migration to the labour markets of OECD countries and the other on the long-term integration effects of family presence. The report also contains country notes and a statistical annex.
Innovative ways of working with Indigenous Australians are needed to improve their employment prospects, especially as many work in jobs that are most likely to be impacted by digitalisation and automation in the future. This report considers both quantitative and qualitative data regarding employment, skills, and entrepreneurship opportunities for Indigenous Australians. A number of case studies were undertaken with employment and training providers in the cities of Sydney and Perth to gain insights into the delivery of employment and skills programmes targeted to Indigenous Australians. The report highlights critical success factors to better link Indigenous Australians to high quality jobs while also providing recommendations regarding future employment and skills programming.
Norway is committed to a high quality and equitable education system, as demonstrated by its high level of public expenditure on education and the dynamic policy activity targeting education quality. Despite progress made in enhancing average student performance in recent years, there still are significant differences between schools in municipalities and between municipalities and regions. In response, Norway has started to implement the new competence development model that sets out to develop teacher professionalism with in-service professional development. With this new policy, the Government of Norway aims to provide municipalities and schools with greater freedom of action and empower them to carry out systematic school improvements at the local level. This decentralised approach would respond to local context and the diversity of needs between Norwegian schools.
This report aims to support Norway in this effort, analysing the features of the new model, the engagement of the different stakeholders and the policy context for its introduction. Building on the OECD implementation framework, the report proposes concrete actions to adapt the implementation strategy for impact.
The report will be valuable not only for Norway, but also to the many countries that are looking to promote school-based professional development and bridge the gap between policy design and effective implementation.
The series Investing in Youth builds on the expertise of the OECD on youth employment, social support and skills. It covers both OECD countries and key emerging economies. The report on Finland presents new results from a comprehensive analysis of the situation of young people in Finland, exploiting various sources of survey-based and administrative data. It provides a detailed assessment of education, employment and social policies in Finland from an international perspective, and offers tailored recommendations to help improve the school-to-work transition. Earlier reviews in the same series have looked at youth policies in Brazil (2014), Latvia and Tunisia (2015), Australia, Lithuania and Sweden (2016), Japan (2017), Norway (2018) and Peru (2019).
The present report on Peru is part of the series on "Investing in Youth", which builds on the expertise of the OECD on youth employment, social support and skills. This series covers both OECD countries and countries in the process of accession to the OECD, as well as some emerging economies. The report provides a detailed diagnosis of youth policies in the areas of social, employment, education and training policies. Its main focus is on young people who are not in employment, education or training (the "NEETs").
Earlier reviews in the same series have looked at youth policies in Brazil (2014), Latvia and Tunisia (2015), Australia, Lithuania and Sweden (2016), Japan (2017), and Norway (2018).
The present report on Norway is part of the series on "Investing in Youth" which builds on the expertise of the OECD on youth employment, social support and skills. This series covers both OECD countries and countries in the process of accession to the OECD, as well as some emerging economies. The report provides a detailed diagnosis of youth policies in the areas of education, training, social and employment policies. Its main focus is on young people who are not in employment, education or training (the "NEETs").
Earlier reviews in the same series have looked at youth policies in Brazil (2014), Latvia and Tunisia (2015), Australia, Lithuania and Sweden (2016), Japan (2017).
OECD’s Innovation Strategy calls upon all sectors in the economy and society to innovate in order to foster productivity, growth and well-being. Education systems are critically important for innovation through the development of skills that nurture new ideas and technologies. However, whereas digital technologies are profoundly changing the way we work, communicate and enjoy ourselves, the world of education and learning is not yet going through the same technology-driven innovation process as other sectors.
This report served as the background report to the second Global Education Industry Summit which was held on 26-27 September 2016. It discusses the available evidence on innovation in education, the impact of digital technologies on teaching and learning, the role of digital skills and the role of educational industries in the process of innovation. The report argues for smarter policies, involving all stakeholders, for innovation in education.
The present report on Lithuania is the fourth of a new series on "Investing in Youth" which builds on the expertise of the OECD on youth employment, social support and skills. This series covers both OECD countries and countries in the process of accession to the OECD, as well as some emerging economies. The report provides a detailed diagnosis of the youth labour market and VET system in Lithuania from an international comparative perspective, and offers tailored recommendations to help improve school-to-work transitions. It also provides an opportunity for Lithuania to learn from the innovative measures that other countries have taken to strengthen the skills of youth and their employment outcomes, notably through the implementation of a Youth Guarantee.