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As artificial intelligence (AI) expands its scope of applications across society, understanding its impact becomes increasingly critical. The OECD's AI and the Future of Skills (AIFS) project is developing a comprehensive framework for regularly measuring AI capabilities and comparing them to human skills. The resulting AI indicators should help policymakers anticipate AI’s impacts on education and work.
This volume describes the second phase of the project: exploring three different approaches to assessing AI. First, the project explored the use of education tests for the assessment by asking computer experts to evaluate AI’s performance on OECD’s tests in reading, mathematics and science. Second, the project extended the rating of AI capabilities to tests used to certify workers for occupations. These tests present complex practical tasks and are potentially useful for understanding the application of AI in the workplace. Third, the project explored measures from direct AI evaluations. It commissioned experts to develop methods for selecting high-quality direct measures, categorising them according to AI capabilities and systematising them into single indicators. The report discusses the advantages and challenges in using these approaches and describes how they will be integrated into developing indicators of AI capabilities.
The Croatian government views digitalisation as a way to improve access to higher education and increase its attractiveness. To this end, it is investing in modernising digital infrastructure and building capacity to effectively integrate digital technologies into the higher education sector. This report provides an account of the activities and findings of a project on assessing and improving digital maturity in Croatian higher education institutions, which was carried out by the OECD and funded by the European Union. The objective of the project was to provide support and advice to Croatian authorities as they develop their policy approach to higher education digitalisation.
This report details the activities and outcomes of the project. It reviews international best practices related to enhancing the quality of digital higher education. It also provides technical guidance to public authorities on prioritising investments in various forms of digital infrastructure. Finally, it offers guidance to Croatian higher education institutions to support their strategic development process and their investment strategies with regard to digitalisation.
Policies aimed at reducing the environmental impact of human activities have important consequences for labour markets, jobs, and skills. As employment is shifting towards more sustainable activities, workers are increasingly expected to have skills that support the transition to a greener economy. Assessing and anticipating emerging skill needs is crucial to avoid bottlenecks and sustain the green transition. This report sheds light on existing methods to measure changes in skill demand and supply related to the green transition through an in-depth review of practices in five OECD countries (Australia, Austria, France, Norway and Sweden). It also identifies best practice on how to feed information on changing skill needs into policies, notably in the areas of employment, career guidance, education and adult learning.
A changing world of work brings the importance of Vocational Education and Training (VET) to the forefront, as it has the ability to develop the skills that are needed in today’s labour markets and societies. At the same time, structural changes highlight the need to re-engineer certain parts of VET systems in some countries to make them more resilient and ensure they can make the most of the opportunities ongoing changes present.
This report zooms in on four key dimensions of future-ready VET systems: i) responsiveness to changing skill needs; ii) the flexibility to make VET work for all; iii) the ability to support transitions into a changing labour market and further learning; iv) the potential of digital technology to innovate VET design and delivery. For each of these dimensions, the report presents a set of key questions that policymakers and other VET stakeholders should consider when re-engineering VET to make it more future-ready, as well as insights from data and international examples of policies and practices.
As societies become increasingly digital, the importance of cyber security has grown significantly for individuals, companies, and nations. The rising number of cyber attacks surpasses the existing defense capabilities, partly due to a shortage of skilled cyber security professionals. This report delves into the analysis of the demand for cyber security experts in Latin America, using information from online job postings in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. The analysis investigates recent trends in job demand for various cyber security roles, the geographical distribution of cyber security job postings, and the evolving skill requirements in this field. Additionally, the report focuses on the supply side by examining the landscape of cyber security education and training programmes in Colombia. It explores the different types of programmes offered in vocational and higher education, the characteristics of learners enrolled in these programmes, and their outcomes. Lastly, the report examines policies and initiatives implemented in Colombia to enhance the accessibility and relevance of cyber security education and training programmes. This report is part of a broader initiative that examines the evolution of policies and experiences in the cyber security profession around the world.
This report assesses how the United States Commonwealth of Virginia is preparing young people for their working lives through career development. It builds on OECD longitudinal analyses which identify forms of career development that can be most confidently associated with better employment outcomes for young people. Collecting data from current secondary school students and young adults in the labour market, the report provides an oversight of career development in Virginia. It then explores the extent to which students are being effectively, efficiently and equitably prepared for their working lives through career guidance programmes. Career readiness is a policy of high importance and the report identifies many strengths within the Virginia system. In order to enhance provision however, there is need to update career readiness standards, frameworks and instruments, and to engage employers and people in work more systematically within guidance activities. Opportunity exists to better amplify labour market signalling, particularly with regard to the skilled trades. The report highlights international practice that can be expected to reduce inequalities in provision, linked especially to the socio-economic backgrounds of students and their geographic location. Here, scope exists notably to draw on digital technologies to enhance provision.
This report, linked with the Digital Education Outlook 2023, provides an overview of 29 countries’ (or jurisdictions') digital education ecosystem and governance. Each chapter covers the devolution of responsibilities within countries; how it affects digital education; what digital tools for management and teaching and learning are made publicly available to schools, teachers and students; how they are provided or procured; how countries ensure the security, privacy, equity and effectiveness of this digital ecosystem while keeping incentives for private education technology (EdTech) companies. The information and analysis are based on a survey on digital education infrastructure and governance, interviews with national and regional government officials as well as desk-based research.
Providing for the first time a holistic view of 29 countries’ and jurisdictions' digital education ecosystem and governance, this report will be of interest to policy makers, academics and education stakeholders interested in the digital transformation of education at home and internationally.
In 2024, education and training systems have a ‘unique potential’ to build the foundations of equitable, sustainable societies. In the OECD National Survey for Comparative Policy Analysis 2023: Empowering Learners to go Green, 90% of participating systems identified environmental sustainability as a key priority for 2024. There is no trade-off between addressing the biggest challenge facing people and the planet and responding to other external shocks and long-term evolutions, especially since these will only become increasingly interdependent. This implies empowering lifelong learners, institutions and education systems with the agency required to act, today. Building on the OECD’s Framework of Responsiveness and Resilience in Education Policy, survey responses from 36 education systems and international policy analysis, this report explores how education systems can: 1) translate learners’ awareness into environmental action; 2) provide learners with experiences to shape the green economy; and 3) position education as a strategic sector for the green transition. By exploring these areas, the report aims to support countries to follow up on the goals established by the 2022 OECD Declaration on Building Equitable Societies Through Education. The report is part of the Education Policy Outlook series—the OECD’s analytical observatory of education policy.
Education at a Glance is the authoritative source for information on the state of education around the world. It provides data on the structure, finances and performance of education systems across OECD countries and a number of accession and partner countries. More than 100 charts and tables in this publication – as well as links to much more available on the educational database – provide key information on the output of educational institutions; the impact of learning across countries; access, participation and progression in education; the financial resources invested in education; and teachers, the learning environment and the organisation of schools.
The 2023 edition includes a focus on vocational education and training (VET), examining participation in VET and the structure of VET programmes. This edition also includes a new chapter - Ensuring continued learning for Ukrainian refugees - which presents the results of an OECD 2023 survey that collected data on measures taken by OECD countries to integrate Ukrainian refugees into their education systems.
This publication provides additional reference material for Education at a Glance 2023, the authoritative source for data on the state of education around the world. It provides guidance on the data and methodology used to calculate each indicator. It also contains references to the sources and specific notes for each country.
Digitalisation is transforming education as well as social and economic life, with implications for childhood. Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), with its immense potential to shape children’s early development, learning and well-being, can play a major role in addressing the opportunities and risks that digitalisation brings to young children. Digitalisation also creates new ways of working that have the potential to lead to quality improvement in the ECEC sector. This report provides a 360-degree view of the challenges of digitalisation in ECEC and possible policy responses.
The emergence of fully online, hybrid and blended forms of higher education has led governments, quality assurance agencies and higher education institutions (HEIs) across the OECD to reflect on how to ensure that digital education provides learners with opportunities to reach learning and employment outcomes similar to those achieved through traditional in person instruction. Building on stakeholder engagement and comparative analysis, this report offers an assessment of Hungary’s quality assurance system for higher education and, more specifically, its strengths and weaknesses for assuring the quality of digital higher education. It offers recommendations and policy options to support the ongoing reform of Hungary’s higher education accreditation system as well as a list of potential digital education indicators to be integrated in the assessment frameworks used by the Hungarian Accreditation Committee (MAB) for the accreditation of higher education institutions.
Governments and education policy makers are increasingly concerned with equity and inclusion in education due to several major global trends such as demographic shifts, migration and refugee crises, rising inequalities, and climate change. These developments have contributed to increasing diversity within national populations and flagged some concerns around the ability of education systems to be equitable and inclusive of all students.
This report by the Strength through Diversity project examines how education systems can respond to increasing diversity and foster greater equity and inclusion in education. Based on a holistic framework for studying diversity, equity and inclusion in education, the report examines five key policy areas (i.e., governance; resourcing; capacity building; school-level interventions, and monitoring and evaluation), provides examples of policies and practices, and offers policy advice on promoting more equitable and inclusive education systems.
As countries seek to draw lessons the COVID-19 crisis and increase their future resilience, evaluations are important tools to understand what worked or not, why and for whom. This report builds on the OECD work on “government evaluations of COVID-19 responses”. It evaluates Belgium’s responses to the pandemic in terms of risk preparedness, crisis management, as well as public health, education, economic and fiscal, and social and labour market policies. Preserving the country’s resilience in the future will require promoting trust in public institutions and whole-of-government approaches to crisis management, reducing inequalities, and preserving the fiscal balance. The findings and recommendations of this report will provide guidance to public authorities in these efforts.
The 2023 Gender, Education and Skills Report on the persistence of gender gaps in education and skills presents fresh insights on progress towards gender equality in education. The report tries to understand why teen boys are more likely than girls, on average, to fail to attain a baseline level of proficiency in reading, mathematics and science, and why high-performing girls do not continue investing in developing skills in areas such as mathematics and science, when compared to high-performing boys. The report also describes that, despite overall gender gaps in mathematics and science being quite small, young women continue to be under-represented in STEM-related fields after leaving school. These career choices are also reflected in gender disparities in the labour market: tertiary-educated women earn 76% of the earnings of their male peers. This could be possible because men are more likely than women to pursue studies in fields associated with higher earnings, such as engineering, manufacturing and construction, and ICTs, while women still choose fields associated with lower earnings, including education, welfare, and arts and humanities.
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.
OECD countries continue to face persistent gender inequalities in social and economic life. Young women often reach higher levels of education than young men, but remain under-represented in fields with the most lucrative careers. Women spend more time on unpaid work, face a strong motherhood penalty, encounter barriers to entrepreneurship and fare worse in labour markets overall. They are also under-represented in politics and leadership positions in public employment. These elements permeate many policy areas and economic sectors – from international trade and development assistance to energy and the environment – in which policy often lacks a strong gender focus. Violence against women, the most abhorrent manifestation of gender inequality, remains a global crisis. This publication analyses developments and policies for gender equality, such as gender mainstreaming and budgeting, reforms to increase fathers’ involvement in parental leave and childcare, pay transparency initiatives to tackle gender pay gaps, and systems to address gender-based violence. It extends the perspective on gender equality to include foreign direct investment, nuclear energy and transport. Advancing gender equality is not just a moral imperative; in times of rapidly ageing populations, low fertility and multiple crises, it will strengthen future gender-equal economic growth and social cohesion.
Measuring innovation in education and understanding its drivers and obstacles is essential to improve the quality of the education sector – and of specific educational establishments. Are pedagogical and administrative practices changing in the expected direction? Do educational institution have a positive innovation culture that supports innovation? What are the drivers of innovation that policy makers or institution leaders could influence to achieve the systems’ educational objectives? How much do countries invest in educational research?
This book proposes insights and tools to policy makers and education leaders willing to drive change based on data and evidence and new tools and methodologies for education policy makers and institution leaders to answer those questions. Based on the research literature and the long experience of innovation and research surveys, these tools are meant either for a statistical collection or to engage in self-reflection at the institutional level. Three aspects of innovation are covered: educational innovation at the system level, innovation culture within educational institutions, innovation towards equity in education. A questionnaire to measure educational research and experimental development expenditures and implementation and new methodologies to measure certain aspects of educational innovation and educational research based on big data and bibliometrics are also presented.
El Salvador has made significant development progress in the past 30 years. The end of the civil war in 1992 marked the establishment of a liberal democracy and an open export-led development model, which led to a reduction in poverty and inequality. However, with economic growth averaging a modest 2.4% in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, and productivity growth of 0.1% over the past decade, the post-war model has not generated the economic momentum or the jobs that the country needs. Decisive action is necessary to kickstart more robust, inclusive and sustainable development. Based on a multi-dimensional analysis of development in El Salvador, this report makes four priority recommendations: 1) build the conditions for a productive transformation and modernisation of the economy; 2) increase the quantity, quality and relevance of education; 3) manage water resources better to deliver water and sanitation for all in a sustainable manner; and 4) modernise the State so it can effectively deliver key public goods, from security to education to health, and successfully steer the next stage in the country’s development.