United Kingdom

Apprenticeship systems have a crucial role to play in providing students, workers and jobseekers with relevant training opportunities and developing the right skills for the future in responding to changing labour market needs. This report focuses on how to strengthen the apprenticeship system in Scotland (United Kingdom). The Scottish apprenticeship system has made remarkable progress, becoming one of the most flexible and wide ranging systems in the OECD. Apprenticeship starts are on the rise and outcomes have been positive. Informed by international evidence, this report identifies strategies to make the system more responsive, innovative and inclusive. These include strengthened employer engagement, refined minimum requirements for programmes, strategic guidance and practical support for innovation in apprenticeships, and efforts to make the system more accessible and relevant so as to promote inclusion and equity.

Being able to swim empowers individuals to make choices, have agency, and be free to choose core aspects of their life, such as working safely on or near water. It is also associated with lifelong health benefits and reduces the risk of drowning. Using data from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll 2019, this paper provides the first global estimates of adults’ ability to swim without assistance. Individuals in high-income countries are considerably more likely to report being able to swim without assistance than individuals in low-income countries. Disparities also exist within countries. In particular, women are less likely to be able to swim without assistance than men in virtually all countries, birth cohorts, and levels of education. Investing in reducing inequalities in life skills, such as swimming, can foster economic development and empowerment, especially in light of threats, such as climate change.

The paper is the first in a series of two papers mapping young people’s environmental sustainability competence in EU and OECD countries that were prepared as background for the forthcoming OECD Skills Outlook 2023 publication. The papers are the results of a collaboration between the OECD Centre for Skills and the European Commission - Joint Research Centre (Unit B4) on students’ environmental sustainability competence. The second paper is titled: ‘The environmental sustainability competence toolbox: From leaving a better planet to our children to leaving better children for our planet’.

The paper is the second in a series of two papers mapping young people’s environmental sustainability competence in EU and OECD countries that were prepared as background for the forthcoming OECD Skills Outlook 2023 publication. The papers are the results of a collaboration between the OECD Centre for Skills and the European Commission - Joint Research Centre (Unit B4) on students’ environmental sustainability competence. The first paper is titled ‘Young people’s environmental sustainability competence: Emotional, cognitive, behavioural and attitudinal dimensions in EU and OECD countries.

There is a discernible and growing gap between the qualifications that a university degree certifies and the actual generic, 21st-century skills with which students graduate from higher education. By generic skills, it is meant literacy and critical thinking skills encompassing problem solving, analytic reasoning and communications competency. As automation takes over non- and lower-cognitive tasks in today’s workplace, these generic skills are especially valued but a tertiary degree is a poor indicator of skills level. In the United States, the Council for Aid for Education developed an assessment of generic skills called the CLA+ and carried out testing in six countries between 2016 and 2021. This book provides the data and analysis of this 'CLA+ International Initiative'.

This report offers an initial overview of the available information regarding the circumstances, nature and outcomes of the education of schoolchildren during the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns of March-April 2020. Its purpose is primarily descriptive: it presents information from high quality quantitative studies on the experience of learning during this period in order to ground the examination and discussion of these issues in empirical examples. Information is presented on three interrelated topics: the nature of the educational experience during the period of lockdowns and school closures; the home environment in which education took place for the vast majority of schoolchildren; the effects on the mental health and learning outcomes for children during this period. The data come primarily from 5 countries (France, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States) with additional information on some aspects for 6 additional countries (Australia, Belgium (Flanders), Canada, Finland, Italy and the Netherlands). This report will be of interest to policy makers, academics, education stakeholders and anyone interested in a first international empirical analysis of the effects of the pandemic on the lives and education of schoolchildren.

Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) is a pioneering example of curriculum reform, but the qualifications for upper-secondary school students have seen far less reform. Exam cancellations in 2020-21, and the debates generated provide an opportunity to radically reconsider the assessment system. This paper compares the Scottish system to four other British legacy systems and five other legacy traditions, to offer insight for how Scotland could improve the alignment between CfE and upper-secondary assessments. Theoretical considerations further guide the analysis on what constitutes a dependable and trustworthy assessment system, to refine the reflection around options for the Scottish system. Three major themes emerge from this comparative review: external assessments could be more innovative to capture a wider range of student capabilities; the role of teacher assessment could be reconsidered; and the academic and vocational strands could be better integrated with the assessment system to offer a broader range of curriculum options.

The Welsh Government asked the OECD to undertake a targeted diagnostic study of Wales’ system for teachers’ Continuing Professional Learning (CPL). Drawing on findings from interviews with Welsh stakeholders and schools, as well as document review, the study team identified strengths and weaknesses of the continuing professional learning system in Wales, as well as opportunities and threats going forward.