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What is PIAAC | Why PIAAC | What will PIAAC offer
What is PIAAC?
PIAAC will assess the level and distribution of adult skills in a coherent and consistent way across countries. It will focus on the key cognitive and workplace skills that are required for successful participation in the economy and society of the 21st century. It will be administered for the first time in 2011.
PIAAC will also gather a range of other information including the antecedents and outcomes of skills, as well as information on usage of information technology and literacy and numeracy practices generally.
Why PIAAC?
Governments across the OECD all face the challenges of maintaining competiveness in a global knowledge economy, increasing the flexibility and responsiveness of labour markets, stimulating workforce participation and dealing with issues of population ageing.
High quality comparative information regarding the fundamental skills of the adult population, their distribution in the population and their rate of depreciation as well as the returns to skills and individuals’ dispositions concerning skill formation will provide evidence that will assist governments to evaluate policy and design more effective interventions.
What will PIAAC offer?
Measures of key cognitive and workplace skills
At the core of PIAAC will be an assessment of literacy in the information age, understood as the “interest, attitude and ability of individuals to appropriately use socio-cultural tools, including digital technology and communication tools, to access, manage, integrate and evaluate information, construct new knowledge, and communicate with others”.
In addition, PIAAC will collect information from respondents concerning their use of key work skills in their jobs – a first for an international study.
An evidence base for policy-relevant analysis
Data from PIAAC will allow investigation of the links between key cognitive skills and a range of demographic variables, economic and other outcomes as well as the use of skills in the workplace and other settings. This will constitute a rich evidence base for policy-relevant analysis.
Better measures of the stock of skills
By providing a direct measure of key cognitive skills in addition to measures of formal educational attainment, PIAAC will offer a far more complete and nuanced picture of the stock of human capital than has yet been available to policy makers in most OECD countries. In particular, PIAAC will give a picture of the distribution of the proficiency of the population according to the types and level of cognitive tasks they can perform together with the levels of formal education and training achieved. PIAAC will also have links to previous international adult skills assessments. Some analysis of change over time will be possible for countries which participated in either the International Adult Literacy Survey and/or the Adult Literacy and Life skills Survey.
Performance of education and training systems
PIAAC will enhance the understanding of the effectiveness of education and training systems in developing basic cognitive skills and key generic work skills. For younger cohorts, PIAAC will complement the results of PISA by providing measures of skill following completion of initial education. For older cohorts, PIAAC will allow examination and analysis of the processes of skills loss and maintenance and the effectiveness of education and skill formation systems in supporting skills development over the lifecycle.
International comparisons
An important element of the ‘added value’ of PIAAC compared with national surveys is its international comparative dimension. The PIAAC assessments and questionnaires will be designed to maximise their cross-cultural, cross-national and cross-language validity. All participating countries must adhere to common technical standards when implementing the survey. PIAAC will thus provide a firm basis for comparative analysis of skill formation systems and their outcomes and for international benchmarking regarding adult skills.
Access to expertise
As an international cooperative venture, PIAAC will provide participating countries with access to high-quality expertise in the measurement of adult skills. By sharing the costs of development and pooling resources participating countries will have access to a greater level of expertise than would otherwise be the case.
How will PIAAC be managed?
PIAAC will be a cooperative venture managed by participating OECD countries. The project will be steered by a Board of Participating Countries (BPC) which will be supported by staff of the OECD Secretariat. The operational elements of PIAAC will be undertaken by one or several contractors.
What is the timetable for the implementation of PIAAC?
Administration of the survey will occur in 2011, with results being released in early 2013. Working back from 2011, a field trial will need to be held in 2010 with development work occurring over the period 2008-2009.
Who can participate in PIAAC?
Participation in PIAAC is open to all OECD member countries. Non-OECD countries have the possibility of participating in the survey within a framework established by the PIAAC BPC.
PIAAC contact information
Andreas Schleicher
Email: Andreas.Schleicher@OECD.org
Tel : + 33 (1) 45 24 93 66
Fionnuala Canning
Email : Fionnuala.Canning@OECD.org
Tel : + 33 (1) 45 24 91 17
Mailing Address: OECD, 2 rue André Pascal, Paris 75016, France
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