Access to Education Over the Working Life in Sweden: Priorities, Institutions and Efficiency
(EDU Working Paper No.62)
- To facilitate individuals to adjust their skills to changes in market demands, Sweden has a relatively generous policy to stimulate formal adult education at the compulsory, upper secondary and tertiary levels. This paper provides an overview of what research has reported to assess if and/or how it may be an efficient use of tax payers’ money. Some institutional factors are also briefly presented to discuss what is likely to be required for such a policy to exist in a particular country.
Final Report of the Development of an International Adult Learning Module: Recommendations on Methods, Concepts and Questions in International Adult Learning Surveys OECD Education Working Paper No. 21
(EDU Working Paper No.21)
Policy interest in international surveys on Adult Learning (AL) has increased strongly. AL survey data are used as benchmarks for a country‘s educational system. However, results of key indicators like participation in learning activities often vary remarkably between different data sources. Stating that these differences are due to varying concepts and methods is not enough. The key question is: Which figures represent reality more appropriately? Therefore, evaluation of survey concepts and methods is crucial for international comparison of Adult Learning. This report provides guidelines on methodological and conceptual issues. Part one covers methodological aspects while part two deals with concepts, definitions and example questions. Recommendations are based on input from 14 countries.
Literacy for Life - Further Results from the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey
- The Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALL) study builds on the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), the world’s first internationally comparative survey of adult skills undertaken in three rounds of data collection between 1994 and 1998. The foundation skills measured in the ALL survey include prose literacy, document literacy, numeracy,and problem solving. Additional skills assessed indirectly include familiarity with and use of information and communication technologies.This volume presents general findings for the complete group of eleven countries or regions that collected ALL data between 2002 and 2008 in two main waves of collection. Countries that participated in the first wave are: Bermuda, Canada, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, the United States and the Mexican State of Nuevo Leon. The countries that participated in the second wave are: Australia, Hungary, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.
Learning a Living - First Results of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey
The fundamental goal of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALL) is to shed new light on the twin processes of skill gain and loss. This is achieved through measurement of prose and document literacy of adults for a second time in some countries. Further, the study has extended the range of skills measured by adding problem solving, numeracy and information and communication technology (ICT) skill. This allows one to examine the profiles of important foundation skills. Thus the study makes it possible, for the first time, to explore the interrelationships among skill domains as well as their links to major antecedents and outcomes, such as the quantity and quality of initial education and skill’s impact on employability, wages, and health.
Literacy in the Information Age - Final Report of the International Adult Literacy Survey
- The study offers an understanding of the nature and magnitude of literacy issues faced by countries and explores new insights into the factors that influence the development of adult skills in various settings – at home, at work and across countries. The 20 countries represented account for over 50 per cent of the world’s entire gross domestic product. As such, the literacy data can contribute importantly to an understanding of the demand and supply of skills in the global, knowledgebased economy. The results confirm the importance of skills for the effective functioning of labour markets and for the economic success and social advancement of both individuals and societies. They offer policy makers a useful tool for policy analysis and for crafting policies and programmes that can contribute to economic and social progress.
Definition and Selection of Competencies: Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations (DeSeCo) - Background paper
The complexity of the demands generated by an increasingly interdependent, changing and conflictual world places the objectives of education and the strategies to achieve education goals in center stage of the debate on broad educational reform. In line with a growing concern about the adequacy and quality of education and training and the actual return on public educational expenditure, there has been since the mid-1980s an increased policy interest in comparable outcome indicators in the education field. In fact, measuring the quality of education outcomes, estimating economic and social returns to learning, and identifying key determinants to educational success is an ongoing discussion topic that stimulates keen interest around the world.