Browse by: "S"
Index
Title Index
Year Index
We live in a period of profound systemic change, and as in similar periods in the past, there is bound to be considerable instability and uncertainty before the new society and economy take shape. We have to identify actions that will shape change for the better, and help to build resilience to the inevitable shocks inherent in, and generated by, the complex system of systems constituted by the economy, society and the environment. These challenges require updating the way policies are devised and implemented, and developing more realistic tools and techniques to design those policies on the basis of appropriate data. In Systemic Thinking for Policy Making world experts from the OECD and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) pool their expertise and experience to propose new approaches to analysing the interconnected trends and issues shaping today’s and tomorrow’s world. The authors argue that to tackle planetary emergencies linked to the environment, the economy and socio-political systems, we have to understand their systemic properties, such as tipping points, interconnectedness and resilience. They give the reader a precise introduction to the tools and techniques needed to do so, and offer hope that we can overcome the challenges the world is facing.
Declining fish stocks and expanding fishing fleets have combined with growing competition from aquaculture to put increased pressure on the fishing sector to adjust the size and nature of its operations in many countries. In some fishing communities, almost sixty percent of jobs are linked to fishing and in many coastal areas there are few alternative employment opportunities for fishers. This conference proceedings analyses the social issues and policy challenges that arise from fisheries adjustment policies, and how OECD member countries are meeting those challenges.
The governance of skills systems has always raised a number of challenges for governments. Being at the intersection of education, labour market, industrial and other policy domains, managing skills policies is inherently complex. Addressing these challenges is more than ever crucial as globalisation, technological progress and demographic change are putting daunting pressures on skills systems to ensure that all members of society are equipped with the skills necessary to thrive in a rapidly changing world. Strengthening the Governance of Skills Systems: Lessons from Six OECD Countries provides advice on how to make the governance of skills systems effective. Building on the OECD Skills Strategy 2019, which identified four main challenges of skills systems governance, the report presents examples of how six different countries (Estonia, Germany, Korea, Norway, Portugal and the United States) have responded to one or several of these challenges. It also outlines concrete policy recommendations together with a self-assessment tool which provides guidance to policy makers and stakeholders for designing better skills systems that deliver better skills outcomes.
SMEs that grow have a considerable positive impact on employment creation, innovation, productivity growth and competitiveness. Digital technologies and global value chains offer new opportunities for SMEs to participate in the global economy, innovate and strengthen productivity. Yet SMEs are lagging behind in the digital transition and are disproportionately affected by market failures, trade barriers, policy inefficiencies and the quality of institutions. A cross-cutting approach to SME policy can enhance SME innovation and scale-up, as well as their contributions to inclusive growth. This includes a business environment conducive to risk-taking and experimentation by entrepreneurs, as well as access to entrepreneurship competencies, management and workforce skills, technology, innovation, and networks.
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.
This report on Italy is the sixth country study published in a series of reports looking into how policies connect people with jobs. It discusses how active labour market policies in Italy are performing both on the national and the regional level, focussing particularly on the reform process in the system of public employment services initiated by the Jobs Act. The ongoing reform has good potential to improve the performance of employment services in Italy, particularly if the stakeholders of the system cooperate to establish a binding performance management framework and develop national IT infrastructure supporting the tasks of the local offices to serve jobseekers and employers. The National Agency for Active Labour Market Policies has a key role in encouraging the cooperation between the stakeholders, leading the development of new tools and methodologies and thus supporting the local employment offices to implement the new service model. Besides the general reform process, the review looks at some specific approaches regarding providing employment services in Italy – using jobseeker profiling tools to target active labour market policies; increasing quality and capacity of employment services by contracting out employment services to private service providers; and reaching out to employers and advancing demand-side services.
Strategic business services, examined in twenty-one OECD country case studies in this book, comprise services in computer software and information processing, research and development and technical testing, marketing, business organisation (management consultancy and labour recruitment) and human resource development. This sector has been growing at around 10% per year, and overall turnover for 1999 is likely to be close to USD 1.5 trillion. These services create jobs in OECD countries, directly employing at least 11 million persons. Business organisation services were the major employer, with 3.6 million people in personnel recruitment services and 1.5 million in management consultancy in the mid-1990s.
This sector’s strong performance is driven by the general shift towards services, the rise of the knowledge-based economy, the need for greater flexibility within firms, specialisation and increased division of labour in many areas, outsourcing by established firms, and the trend towards smaller production units and firms.
Governments influence the demand for business services by promoting private sector investment in intangibles such as R&D, training and education and business organisation, and by supporting the supply of these services through a range of intermediary agencies. The provision of strategic business services is seen as key to improving the performance and competitiveness of small and medium-sized firms.
Countries covered Australia Austria Canada Denmark Finland France Germany Ireland Italy Japan Mexico Netherlands Norway New Zealand Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey United Kingdom United States
This report brings together OECD data on the globalisation of value chains, including the rise of outsourcing/offshoring. It first examines how OECD countries are affected by the globalisation of production, on both the macroeconomic and sector-specific levels. The costs and benefits of globalisation are then discussed, with an emphasis on employment and productivity. Finally, this report analyses how globalisation impacts the competitiveness of OECD countries, highlighting the need for an effective innovation strategy. The report discusses not only the moving up the value chain that takes place in OECD countries but also in China, as R&D is increasingly going to emerging countries.
This is the fourth edition of Society at a Glance Asia/Pacific, the OECD’s overview of social indicators for the region. The report addresses the growing demand for quantitative evidence on social well-being and its trends across countries in Asia and the Pacific. Chapter 1 introduces this volume and provides readers with a guide to help them interpret OECD social indicators. Chapter 2 focuses on issues around extending coverage and the future of social protection in Asia and the Pacific. Already, there are many workers in Asia and the Pacific whose job does not entitle them to social and health supports. Digitalisation and changes in the nature of work may lead to further job-loss, but also increase economic labour market and economic inequalities between high- and low-skilled workers; workers with and without access to social benefits. These rising inequalities will further challenge social policy development in its quest to get support to those who need it most. The chapter includes some country programme examples to illustrate possible policy responses. Chapter 3 to 7 each present five indicators on general context, self-sufficiency, equity, health and social cohesion.
SMEs and entrepreneurs play a key role in national economies around the world, generating employment and income, contributing to innovation and knowledge diffusion, responding to new or niched demands and social needs, and enhancing social inclusion. However, SMEs are often more affected by business environment conditions and structural policies than larger firms.
This report presents comparative evidence on SME performance and trends, and on a broad range of policy areas and business environment conditions that are important for small businesses. The analysis takes into account the multi-dimensionality of SME policy objectives and the significant heterogeneity of the SME population, within and across countries. Data and indicators on framework conditions are complemented with information on recent policy trends in OECD countries. This publication addresses a growing demand by governments for tools to monitor the business environment for small and medium-sized enterprises, and benchmark the effectiveness of policies in creating appropriate conditions for them to flourish and grow.
This report presents the most recent trends in the labour market demand for digital professionals and skills, highlighting where bottlenecks are emerging and policy action is – and will be – needed to support individuals who aim to thrive in the digital transition. The report analyses a wide range of digital occupations and the associated skill and technology demands using a unique set of data collected from millions of job postings published online in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore and Spain. The evidence contained in this report is key for governments to design targeted retraining and upskilling policies, and for workers to fully benefit from the digital transition.
Innovation holds the key to ongoing improvements in living standards, as well as to solving pressing social challenges. Skilled people play a crucial role in innovation through the new knowledge they generate, how they adopt and develop existing ideas, and through their ability to learn new competencies and adapt to a changing environment.
This book seeks to increase understanding of the links between skills and innovation. It explores the wide range of skills required, ranging from technical to "soft", and the ability to learn; it presents data and evidence on countries' stocks and flows of skills and the links between skill inputs and innovation outputs. Given the importance of meeting the demands of knowledge-based economic activity, the book investigates the issues of skill supply, education, workplace training and work organisation. It highlights the importance of enabling individuals to acquire appropriate skills and of optimising these at work.
Skills are key to a better job and a better life. Yet acquiring them is often most difficult for the people who need them most: those trapped in low-paid jobs with hard working conditions. Innovative experiments throughout OECD member countries show that barriers to skills acquisition can be overcome. A wide range of actors from government, business and civil society have joined efforts and embarked on initiatives that indeed fill the gap between labour market policy and vocational training, and workers’ weaknesses and employers’ evolving needs. There are rich lessons to be learned from the experiences of Belgium (Flanders), Canada, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the United States, which are investigated in this book.
A well-coordinated adult learning system will be essential to support the achievement of Slovenia’s long-term development goals. The transformational effects of globalisation, technological progress and demographic change on life at work and outside of it amplify the importance of getting adults’ skills right.
OECD research shows that individuals, employers and society benefit from adults having higher levels of skills. Slovenia has achieved significant improvements in student performance and tertiary attainment in recent decades. Yet today, many adults in Slovenia have only low levels of basic skills. Participation in adult learning remains below Slovenia’s targets, especially for low-skilled, unemployed and older adults, and workers in small businesses. Against the backdrop of a growing economy and awareness about the importance of skills, Slovenia’s government, social partners and stakeholders have a unique opportunity to improve how they share responsibility and work together in the adult learning system.
This report outlines how Slovenia can strengthen the enabling conditions for co-operation, co-operation between specific actors (ministries, municipalities and stakeholders), and co-operation on specific challenges (promotion and financing). It recommends eight actions that government, social partners and stakeholders can take to strengthen co-ordination and co-operation, in order to improve participation, outcomes and cost-effectiveness in adult learning.
Raising skills is critical to Portugal’s economic success and social well-being. As globalisation and digitalisation are transforming how people work, how societies function and how individuals interact, Portugal needs to equip its entire population with strong skills so that they can benefit from new opportunities.
Portugal has put education and skills at the forefront of the political agenda for many years, but more than half of adults have not completed upper secondary education. With the population ageing rapidly and a growing skills divide between generations, Portugal needs to further strengthen its adult-learning system. To make change happen, Portugal will need a clear vision for the adult-learning system and a strong partnership between all stakeholders – all levels of government, education and training providers, employers, trade unions, the non-profit sector and learners.
This report outlines areas where the accessibility, flexibility and quality of the adult-learning system can be improved, where governance and financing mechanisms can be strengthened, and provides examples of international and national good practice to help achieve these objectives. The report provides a series of concrete actions to help Portugal improve the adult-learning system and in turn enhance economic growth and social cohesion.
In the wake of the technological revolution that began in the last decades of the 20th century, labour-market demand for information-processing and other high-level cognitive and interpersonal skills have been growing substantially. Based on the results from the 33 countries and regions that participated in the 1st and 2nd round of the Survey of Adult Skills in 2011-12 and in 2014-15, this report describes adults’ proficiency in three information-processing skills, and examines how proficiency is related to labour-market and social outcomes. It also places special emphasis on the results from the 3rd and final round of the first cycle of PIAAC in 2017-18, which included 6 countries (Ecuador, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Peru and the United States). The Survey of Adult Skills, a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), was designed to provide insights into the availability of some of these key skills in society and how they are used at work and at home. The first survey of its kind, it directly measures proficiency in three information-processing skills: literacy, numeracy and problem-solving in technology-rich environments.
In the wake of the technological revolution that began in the last decades of the 20th century, labour market demand for information-processing and other high-level cognitive and interpersonal skills is growing substantially. The Survey of Adult Skills, a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), was designed to provide insights into the availability of some of these key skills in society and how they are used at work and at home. The first survey of its kind, it directly measures proficiency in several information-processing skills – namely literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments.
This volume reports results from the 24 countries and regions that participated in the first round of the survey in 2011-12 (first published in OECD Skills Outlook 2013: First Results from the Survey of Adult Skills) and from the nine additional countries that participated in the second round in 2014-15 (Chile, Greece, Indonesia [Jakarta], Israel, Lithuania, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovenia and Turkey). It describes adults’ proficiency in the three information-processing skills assessed, and examines how skills proficiency is related to labour market and social outcomes. Another related report, The Survey of Adult Skills: Reader’s Companion, Second Edition, describes the design and methodology of the survey and its relationship to other international assessments of young students and adults.
The report discusses the results of the OECD “Leveraging Training and Skills Development in SMEs” (TSME) project which examines access to training by SMEs across seven regions in six OECD countries: New Zealand, Poland, Belgium, UK, Turkey and Canada. The book analyses the policy issues related to both low access by SMEs, and how to recognise the increasing importance of informal training and skills development methods. The book looks at how both formal and alternative ways of training and skills development interact and identifies impacts at three levels; for the firm and employees; for the industry; and for the local area where the firm is located.
The report pays special attention to the development of entrepreneurial skills and the emerging area of “green skills”. This focus is not just because ‘green skills’ represent the next new training opportunity – the de-carbonisation of economies that will occur over the coming decades represents an industrial transformation on the scale of the microelectronics revolution - but in many ways the response to the green economy is at an emerging stage- this means we have the opportunity to implement lessons from previous successful practices into a skill development area that will have enormous reach.
Sickness and disability is a key economic policy concern for many OECD countries. Medical conditions, or problems labelled as such by societies and policy systems, are proving an increasing obstacle to raising labour force participation and keeping public expenditure under control. More and more people of working age rely on sickness and disability benefits as their main source of income, and the employment rates of those reporting disabling conditions are low. This report is an assessment of the Swedish reforms, which aim to lower inactivity and increase participation, against the background of recent trends and policy responses in other OECD countries. It looks at what Sweden is currently doing and what more it could do to transform its sickness and disability schemes from passive benefits to active support systems that promote work.