Adolescence is a pivotal stage for shaping how young people see themselves as learners and members of society. As they navigate educational and personal transitions through and beyond compulsory schooling, they begin to form a sense of agency, purpose and belonging that will influence their engagement with learning throughout life. Drawing on international evidence, OECD data and policy approaches from 31 education systems, this chapter analyses the strategic design choices that support learners at this critical life moment and offers practical insights for policymakers. It explores how education systems can nurture adolescents’ will, skills and means for lifelong learning.
Education Policy Outlook 2025
Nurturing Engaged and Resilient Lifelong Learners in a World of Digital Transformation
Abstract
Supporting learners in adolescence
Adolescence is a decisive juncture in the lifelong learning journey, marked by rapid physical, cognitive, emotional, social and behavioural change. It is a time of exploration and transformation, but also a period of increased vulnerability to disengagement from learning. By lower secondary school, students’ motivation and well-being can begin to deepen or decrease. Results from Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 show that only half (50%) of 15-year-olds agreed or strongly agreed that they love learning new things at school. Yet, this is also when identities, aspirations and habits for self-directed learning are still taking shape.
Across 31 education systems, reforms increasingly aim to nurture adolescents’ will, skills and means for lifelong learning. Common areas of focus include:
Will: Nurturing student agency (e.g. Estonia, the Netherlands); supporting social and emotional skills (e.g. French Community (Belgium), Bulgaria, China).
Skills: Ensuring effective teaching practices (e.g. Portugal, Türkiye); developing transversal competencies (e.g. German-speaking Community (Belgium, Czechia, Poland)).
Means: Harnessing digitalisation (e.g. Estonia, Lithuania, Slovak Republic); strengthening career readiness and guidance (e.g. the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden); supporting cross-sectoral collaboration (e.g. Estonia, Iceland, Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)).
Goal setting, reflection and learner-owned portfolios promote student agency; while mentoring and structured professional learning seek to strengthen teachers’ capacity to support it. Transversal competencies are increasingly embedded across subjects, often supported by digital and blended resources. Meanwhile, when combined with strong governance and teacher guidance, digitalisation can enhance inclusion and engagement.
Despite these advances, challenges remain. Many systems seem to continue to focus mainly on academic skills and digital infrastructure and could pay more attention to how schools and families nurture, for instance, adolescents’ motivation, curiosity and sense of belonging. Embedding these capacities more deliberately in daily practice – through formative assessment, collaborative learning and structured reflection – can help students monitor progress and build self-regulation. Teacher professional learning should also include socio-emotional skill development so teachers can model and nurture these behaviours.
Looking ahead, policies should focus on enabling learners’ agency and self-regulation, while ensuring teachers have the time, support and skills to make these aims a reality. Responsible use of digital tools, stronger career guidance and well-being ecosystems, and closer connections with families, communities and employers can ease transitions to future stages. Keeping learning relevant to students’ interests and aspirations can sustain motivation and belonging, making adolescence not the endpoint of schooling, but a bridge toward lifelong learning.
Adolescence builds on the foundations laid in early childhood and represents a second critical moment in the lifelong-learning journey. Between ages 10 and 16, young people are highly open to learning yet vulnerable to disengagement. What happens during these years shapes their capacity to thrive in education, work and society (OECD, 2024[1]). During these years, distinctive cognitive, social, and emotional changes shape how young people respond to challenges and opportunities (Pfeifer and Allen, 2021[2]; Dahl et al., 2018[3]). For many OECD countries, it is also the final systemic opportunity before the end of compulsory schooling to strengthen the will, skills, and means that sustain lifelong learning.
Evidence from PISA 2022 highlights the importance of intrinsic motivation. Students who enjoy learning new things at school are more likely to use effective learning strategies – even after accounting for socio-economic background (OECD, 2024[1]). Those driven by curiosity and enjoyment are more likely to develop self-regulatory habits essential for lifelong learning. Across the OECD, high-performing students in mathematics (Level 3 and above on PISA) also report greater confidence in directing their own learning, on average. This is particularly the case in Austria and Colombia (Figure 3.1). Academic performance and self-directed learning therefore appear mutually reinforcing. Learning environments that foster curiosity, self-belief, and a sense that effort leads to improvement can help students to build the competence and confidence to continue learning throughout life.
Index of confidence in self-directed learning, by level of performance in mathematics
Note: Based on students’ reports. *Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.
Source: OECD (2024[1]), PISA 2022 Results (Volume V): Learning Strategies and Attitudes for Life, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/c2e44201-en.
Socio-emotional development is equally vital. Adolescents participating in the Survey of Social and Emotional Skills (SSES) report lower levels of achievement motivation, self-confidence, and task performance than younger learners (OECD, 2024[4]) (Chapter 1). Yet these same skills underpin persistence and adaptability in uncertain environments (Pintrich and De Groot, 1990[5]; Lüftenegger et al., 2012[6]).
Adolescence is therefore a period of risk and opportunity. Investments in equitable access to quality secondary education, socio-emotional learning, and adolescent health can yield high returns. Policies that cultivate adolescents’ will, skills, and means can unlock this potential.
To support policymakers in this effort, this chapter analyses 66 policy approaches from 31 education systems targeting adolescence, drawing on the Education Policy Outlook questionnaire and international evidence (See Annex 3.A). It examines how countries support adolescents through complex transitions and concludes with considerations for the future.
Adolescence is a pivotal transition when young people form their identities, test social roles and face heightened risks of disengagement from learning. At this stage, education systems can play an enabling role – helping adolescents stay motivated, supported and confident to continue learning beyond compulsory schooling.
OECD evidence reveals persistent gaps in learning strategies, particularly among socio-economically disadvantaged and low-performing students (OECD, 2024[7]). These learners face a dual challenge: lower achievement and limited confidence in their ability to learn. Identifying and building on students’ strengths, such as in terms of learning strategies, motivation, or self-belief, can create multiple pathways to success and prepare them for the uncertainties of tomorrow (OECD, 2024[1]).
Early investments in developing robust learning attitudes can have lasting effects. Individuals who develop a strong drive to learn are far less likely to disengage from adult learning later in life. Across most countries participating in the OECD Survey of Adult Skills, attitudes towards learning are significant predictors of participation in adult learning (OECD, 2021[8]).
A review of international evidence points to several priorities for policy action at both learner and system levels to better support learners at this age. Some are included below.
Focusing on learners
Adolescents thrive when they are encouraged to take ownership of their learning. Approaches such as formative assessment, constructive feedback, and proactive learning strategies can strengthen agency and self-regulated learning at this stage (UNESCO International Bureau of Education, 2021[9]; Dweck, Walton and Cohen, 2014[10]). Education systems can support this by helping teachers design environments where students feel trusted, capable and responsible for their own progress.
Teachers play a decisive role in keeping adolescents engaged. Differentiated instruction, supportive student-teacher relationships, and continuous professional development in areas such as inclusion, socio-emotional learning and digital pedagogy can support teachers to meet diverse learner needs and disseminate effective practice. Investing in mentoring, professional learning and incentives can further encourage learner-centred practices and digitally informed pedagogies (Le Donné, Fraser and Bousquet, 2016[11]; Ibrahim and El Zaatari, 2019[12]; Dahl et al., 2018[3]).
Curricula that prioritise transversal competencies can help prepare students for lifelong adaptability and smoother transitions into upper secondary and vocational pathways. This includes promoting metacognition, problem-solving, collaboration and digital literacy (Schneider and Artelt, 2010[13]; Kaffenberger, Melville and Agarwal, 2025[14]).
Finally, socio-emotional development, well-being and positive mental health remain essential to keeping adolescents engaged in learning and to reduce the risk of dropping out. Inclusive school cultures that foster belonging is particularly important at this stage of identity formation. Evidence shows that interventions targeting socio-emotional development promote resilience and sustained participation (Beatson et al., 2023[15]; Belfi and Borghans, 2025[16]; Baird and al, 2025[17]).
Focusing on the system
When used purposefully, digitalisation can enhance inclusion and engagement through more personalised learning. Effective integration of digital tools and hybrid or blended models into teaching and assessment helps reach diverse learners. However, without equitable access and targeted support, digitalisation risks amplifying divides and excluding disadvantaged learners (Mejeh and Rehm, 2024[18]; OECD, 2023[19]).
Career readiness and guidance systems can also give adolescents structured opportunities to explore pathways and connect current learning with future options. International evidence links early, high-quality career guidance and exposure to diverse education and training routes with smoother transitions and lower risks of disengagement (Beatson et al., 2023[15]; UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, 2022[20]).
Whole-system collaboration is also vital. Schools increasingly work in partnership with families, youth services and health providers to address barriers beyond the classroom. Evidence from cross-sector initiatives shows that coordinated support can help adolescents navigate transitions more smoothly and promote inclusion (Sheehan et al., 2017[21]).
While these priorities are supported by growing international evidence, their effectiveness ultimately depends on how they are operationalised and implemented. The policy approaches explored below offer a glimpse into how countries and economies are translating these priorities into action, offering lessons for policymakers seeking to adapt similar strategies and anticipate potential trade-offs.
Countries are increasingly translating broad ambitions for lifelong learning into concrete action during adolescence. Across education systems, reforms align closely with the international priorities identified earlier – especially those promoting learner agency, teacher capacity, well-being, and responsible digitalisation. This chapter explores these initiatives, first by looking into overall strategic design choices for these policies (e.g. mechanisms, scope, actors, resources and tools) to provide a system-level view of how different design choices and delivery arrangements shape implementation capacity. Initiatives are grouped by policy aims under will, skills and means, allowing policymakers to see how different strategies aim to motivate adults, develop relevant competencies and expand accessible learning opportunities, and where stronger coordination across these dimensions could make lifelong-learning systems more coherent and effective. These elements are summarised in Infographic 3.1.
Most common approaches identified according to policy aim (selected categories)
Note: See Annex 3.A for a more complete view on the policies included in this chapter.
Source: Education Policy Outlook (2025): National Questionnaire for Comparative Policy Analysis: Nurturing Engaged and Resilient Lifelong Learners in a World of Digital Transformation.
Strategic design choices in lifelong learning policies for adolescents
This section examines how countries design policies to sustain motivation and skill development as young people move through early to mid-adolescence. It analyses policy aims, mechanisms, scope and actors, highlighting how these choices influence engagement, equity and pathways into adulthood. While most of the initiatives collected pursue broader objectives associated with school education, many in the adolescence stage aim to nurture the will, skills and means that sustain lifelong learning.
Aims
Policy aims refer to the main objectives pursued to support learners. Many of the policies analysed share core objectives for lifelong learning in adolescence. Across systems, common aims include promoting learner agency, supporting social and emotional skills support learners’ will, while objectives such as ensuring effective teacher practices and developing transversal competencies are key for developing learners’ skills for lifelong learning. Furthermore, harnessing digitalisation for inclusion, engagement and personalisation, and strengthening career readiness and guidance, underpinned by cross-sectoral coordination also emerge as important policy aims, which can support learners’ means for learning.
Mechanisms and actions
Achieving a policy aim requires translating ambition into operational mechanisms and actions. Across the policies reviewed, mechanisms are typically layered and combined to reach intended outcomes.
Curriculum renewal. New frameworks increasingly embed learner agency, transversal competencies and digital literacy – defining what students learn and how teachers teach. Austria’s curriculum reform modernises teaching to foster interdisciplinary skills and flexibility in lesson design (see Box 3.1). In Estonia, the National Curriculum for Basic Schools integrates goal setting and self-assessment to promote learner agency, while Portugal’s Digital Transition Plan aligns content with digital competencies for students and teachers. Poland and the Netherlands complement these efforts with learner-owned tools and profiles that strengthen self-directed learning.
Teacher capability building. Sustained professional learning and investments in teacher workforce competencies are instrumental for embedding new pedagogies and digital practices. For example, Estonia’s ProgeTiger provides digital devices, teacher training and learning materials to strengthen classroom innovation.
Targeted equity measures. Financial incentives and engagement strategies can support equitable outcomes. In Estonia, financial support helps schools expand participation. For example, in Luxembourg, curriculum reform is paired with family engagement and structured transition support to help learners progress equitably.
Infrastructure, digital access, and governance. Investments in broadband connectivity, devices and secure platforms aim to ensure equitable access to technology and blended learning models, as seen in Estonia and Portugal. These are complemented by governance and monitoring frameworks to promote accountability: France’s Digital Strategy for Education (2023-2027) introduces AI principles, and Türkiye’s Digital Skills Assessment creates competency benchmarks and feedback loops feeding into continuous professional development for teachers.
Cross-sectoral coordination. Countries are strengthening coordination across education, health, social and community services to improve outreach and the broader learning environment for learners. Iceland’s system-wide acts promote service integration, while Northern Ireland (United Kingdom) funds school-community partnerships through its Extended Schools Programme.
Austria has introduced a major curriculum reform in primary and lower secondary schools, with the aim of modernising teaching and preparing students for life in an increasingly complex world.
The reformed curricula aims to strengthen the development of subject-specific and interdisciplinary skills needed for independent and successful lives; supporting interdisciplinary learning and smoother transitions between school levels; and creating more flexibility for innovative, future-oriented lesson design by focusing on core essentials.
Several actions are being undertaken to support implementation. This includes cooperation between the Ministry of Education with education directorates and teacher training college. The reform is being integrated into the school quality management system. Teachers are supported through online platforms, including the development of a dedicated website and an online course. Further mechanisms include the provision of support materials such as rubrics and competence-based learning tasks and renewal of all textbooks and educational media.
Source: Austria’s response to the Education Policy Outlook (2025): National Pre-Filled Questionnaire for Comparative Policy Analysis: Nurturing Engaged and Resilient Lifelong Learners in a World of Digital Transformation, Bundesministerium Bildung (n.d[22]), www.paedagogik-paket.at, accessed 15 September 2025
The effectiveness of adolescent-learning reforms depends on how well systems align curriculum, teaching, digital tools and equity measures. Coherence between what students learn, how teachers teach and who is supported reinforces system capacity and contribute to building future-ready education systems.
Scope and timeline
Most policies reviewed adopt national or universal coverage, particularly in curriculum reform and digitalisation strategies. Examples include Portugal’s Digital Transition Plan, France’s National Digital Strategy, and Estonia’s extension of compulsory participation to age 18.
National implementation can enhance visibility, coherence, and legitimacy. At the same time, more targeted approaches are common for reforms focused on equity, transitions, or innovative practice. Croatia’s Whole Day School reform began in a subset of schools. Such targeted approaches can enhance relevance and allow systems to experiment, but as also noted in other chapters in this report, they risk fragmentation if not embedded within broader system frameworks.
Timelines typically combine long-term strategies with phased roll-outs. Curriculum reforms, such as in Austria and Poland, are typically multi-year and sequenced by grade or cohort. Digitalisation initiatives often mix short-term investments in infrastructure with ongoing cycles of monitoring and adaptation, as seen in Portugal. Structural reforms such as Estonia’s transition to Estonian-medium instruction, and integrating AI in education, are similarly phased to allow capacity building (see Box 3.2). Pilot-based reforms, such as Croatia’s, usually set time-bound horizons linked to evaluation and potential scale-up.
The AI-Leap Education Programme (TI-Hüpe) is a national initiative launched by the President of Estonia in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Research and private partners. It provides free access to leading AI learning applications for students and teachers, aiming to build the knowledge and skills needed for the responsible and effective use of AI in education. The programme seeks to foster a generation of digitally fluent, lifelong learners by embedding AI tools into learning processes.
Implementation is managed through a dedicated foundation overseeing strategy, partnerships and funding. Core mechanisms include teacher training, integration of AI applications into classrooms, personalised learning pathways, and national coordination to guarantee equal access across regions and schools. The phased rollout begins in spring 2025 with the establishment of the foundation and partnership agreements, followed by autumn 2025 training and rollout to 20 000 upper secondary students and 3 000 teachers. In autumn 2026, the programme expands to 28 000 vocational students, 2 000 additional teachers, and new 10th-grade students. By spring 2027, it will have reached around 58 000 students and 5 000 teachers nationwide, when the first impact evaluation will commence.
Source: Estonia’s response to the Education Policy Outlook (2025): National Pre-Filled Questionnaire for Comparative Policy Analysis: Nurturing Engaged and Resilient Lifelong Learners in a World of Digital Transformation, TI-Hüpe (2025[23]), Human intelligence together with artificial intelligence (Pärisaru koos tehisaruga), https://tihupe.ee, accessed 22 September 2025.
Realistic timelines, continuous capacity building and feedback mechanisms are essential not only for implementation success but also for fostering adolescents’ identity as lifelong learners. Policy continuity and coherence, for instance across lower and upper secondary, can help prevent the potential decline in socio-emotional skills as students age and move throughout their education pathways.
Main actors typically involved
The range of actors who can support policy processes targeting this critical life moment is broad and extends well beyond schools and the education sector.
Ministries and national agencies set strategic directions, establish quality standards and legislate frameworks, while local and regional bodies adapt implementation to context. This distinction reflects OECD findings on multi-level governance in public policy, which highlight that effective decentralisation depends on clear accountability, fiscal equalisation and strong professional capacity at subnational levels (OECD, 2017[24]; Charbit, 2011[25]).
Research and expert bodies, when engaged, are frequently involved as design and evaluation partners, involved in developing curricula and expert frameworks.
Employers and social partners appear most involved in vocational and career-oriented reforms, aiming to strengthen transitions between education and work and enhance skills relevance.
Civil society organisations and NGOs are also identified in a handful of policies, particularly for outreach, well-being and inclusion, such as in Brazil’s School Health Programme, or Bulgaria’s social-emotional learning initiative, often as implementing partners for targeted programmes. Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)’s Extended Schools Programme brings together a range of actors to support local needs.
Partnerships with technology consortia and EdTech firms appear to have expanded as systems digitalise learning, infrastructure and data processes. Estonia, Lithuania and Bulgaria, for instance, have developed these to support development and delivery of infrastructure, tools and training.
Schools alone cannot carry adolescent learning. Stronger connections with families, youth services and community organisations can build more coherent environments for engagement, well-being and inclusion.
Digital and blended approaches
Large-scale digitalisation plans in education systems such as Portugal, Slovak Republic and Bulgaria combine infrastructure investments and updates (devices, broadband, cloud services) with digital teaching materials and competence frameworks for teachers. Estonia’s AI-Leap adds an explicit focus on AI applications and personalised learning, while Lithuania’s EdTech initiative connects public institutions, digital education innovators and schools to pilot new tools.
Across systems, digital tools targeting adolescents include online learning platforms, digital curricula, assessment systems and, in some cases, AI-enabled applications. These are typically introduced with the stated aims of expanding access, reducing administrative burdens, and supporting personalisation for learners, as seen in Estonia and Lithuania.
Blended approaches are common, reflecting a shared recognition that technology alone does not shift outcomes or drive learning gains; it must be integrated with pedagogical and organisational reforms. This direction aligns with OECD evidence that digitalisation has the greatest impact when accompanied by strong teacher capacity, inclusive curricula, and supportive school environments. PISA 2022 findings further indicate that mathematics performance tends to improve when students use digital learning resources that they find engaging and interesting. Furthermore, across countries, an increase of one hour per week in the use of digital resources for learning at school is positively associated with mathematics proficiency among students who agree that such resources make learning interesting (see Figure 3.2).
Change in mathematics proficiency by one hour increase in the use of digital resources for learning at school, by agreeing or not with the sentence “Digital learning resources available at my school make learning interesting”
Note: Education systems are shown in descending order of the score difference associated with a one-hour increase in time spent using digital devices for learning in school per day, after accounting for students' and schools' socio-economic profile.
Source: OECD (2023[26]), PISA Database 2022, https://www.oecd.org/pisa/data/2022database.
Overall, these results suggest that the quality and perceived relevance of digital learning experiences matter more than the quantity of use, highlighting the importance of designing digital and blended approaches that capture students’ interest and support learning, while also balancing opportunities and risks faced online (see Box 3.3).
Across the OECD, most adolescents spend a substantial amount of time on digital devices. On average, 15-year-olds spend 2 hours per day on digital tools for learning activities at school, combined with 1.5 hours before or after school, and another 1.6 hours per day at the weekend. In addition, teenagers use digital devices extensively for leisure (OECD, 2023[27]).
Digital engagement offers important opportunities for learning, but it can also expose adolescents to risks. While many young people experience neutral or positive effects, a vulnerable minority struggle with problematic digital media use, which is associated with negative well-being outcomes. This occurs when adolescents find it difficult to regulate their time online, feeling compelled to continue even when it interferes with daily responsibilities or affects their well-being (OECD, 2025[28]). These risks are commonly grouped into four categories:
Content risks, such as exposure to harmful or misleading material;
Conduct risks, including cyberbullying or harassment;
Contact risks, where adolescents interact with potentially harmful others; and
Consumer risks, including privacy breaches and exploitative commercial design.
For policymakers, it is therefore important to foster safe, meaningful, and balanced engagement with digital tools.
This involves combining efforts to strengthen adolescents’ digital literacy and self-regulation with appropriate safeguards – such as privacy by design and content moderation - to ensure that digital environments support, rather than undermine, learning and well-being and the foundations for lifelong learning.
Source: OECD (2023[27]), PISA 2022 Results (Volume II): Learning During – and From – Disruption, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/a97db61c-en; OECD (2025[28]), How's Life for Children in the Digital Age?, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/0854b900-en.
Digitalisation delivers impact when embedded in sound pedagogy and supported by teacher capability, inclusive curricula and safe online environments. Systems combining technology with strong professional and institutional foundations can achieve greater learning engagement, quality and equity.
Resources required
Education systems mobilise a diverse mix of inputs across the core types of resources analysed for this report, of which funding, infrastructure and human resources are discussed. This section examines the resources required to implement the policy approaches reviewed, while the following section considers the resources and tools generated through these policies.
Funding arrangements are most often embedded in national or regional budgets, with a smaller number of education systems complementing these with grants or subnational contributions to support local implementation or adaptation. Public investment remains the main resource, with OECD findings underscoring that sustainable and equitable funding is essential to both equity and quality (OECD, 2017[29]).
Infrastructure investments combine physical renewal and digital capacity. Reforms range from upgrading school facilities and ensuring accessibility, to building digital ecosystems (see Portugal example in Box 3.4).
Human resources are central to implementation. Reforms related to digitalisation or curricula often includelarge-scale professional development and the creation of specialist roles to embed new pedagogies and support inclusion, for example in Slovenia. Emerging profiles, including educational technologists and data or assessment specialists, are operationalising digital transformation aims, for example in Estonia. Multidisciplinary and cross-agency teams (e.g. with municipal case managers) also have coordination functions, though they remain uncommon.
Portugal is modernising the infrastructure of its Specialised Technological Centres (Centros Tecnológicos Especializados) to strengthen vocational education and training in technological fields, especially in emerging sectors with high potential for added value. The initiative focuses on re-equipping and upgrading the technological infrastructure of public and private educational institutions offering vocational training, expanding their capacity through new and modernised spaces and equipment. It also seeks to reinforce the attractiveness of dual-certification secondary-level programmes in areas requiring highly skilled labour, aligned with rapid technological change driven by the digital and climate transitions.
Strengthening VET infrastructure is expected to boost student motivation and interest in qualifications linked to technological innovation, particularly in digital and green fields. Eligible schools receive up to EUR 1 000 000 to upgrade learning environments and tools, improving student engagement and making technological training more attractive and future-oriented. This initiative is funded through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
Source: Portugal’s response to the Education Policy Outlook (2025): National Pre-Filled Questionnaire for Comparative Policy Analysis: Nurturing Engaged and Resilient Lifelong Learners in a World of Digital Transformation; Republica Portuguésa (n.d.[30]), Specialised technology centres (Centros Tecnológicos Especializados), https://centrostecnologicos.gov.pt/, accessed 7 October 2025
Effective resourcing depends not only on how much systems invest, but on how strategically resources are allocated and coordinated. Aligning funding, infrastructure and human capacity with reform priorities is important for equity and implementation quality, ensuring that investments reach the learners and schools where they matter most.
Resources generated
Countries are also producing tangible resources to support implementation and strengthen learning ecosystems. A challenge lies not only in creating new tools and resources, but in ensuring their effective use to achieve the intended learning outcomes. For adolescents, impact depends on how these resources are embedded pedagogy, relationships and broader learning environments. By linking curriculum, teacher practice, and digital ecosystems, these resources create an operational bridge between policy frameworks and daily practice.
Pedagogical and methodological resources include digital or blended manuals that support educators in implementing new curricula. Examples include Portugal’s Digital Education Labs, Croatia’s Whole Day School teaching modules, and Bulgaria’s Methodological Materials for SEL.
Curricular and competency frameworks embed transversal, digital, and socio-emotional skills as foundations for lifelong learning (e.g. Austria, Slovenia, Poland and China).
Digital platforms and infrastructure are increasingly developed to integrate learning and teacher support. These range from learning platforms and ecosystems, networks and analytics platforms. Romania’s Relevant Curriculum, Open Education for All (CRED) initiative includes the creation of a digital platform that serves as a repository of digital resources, interactive tutorials, assessment tests, and a series of applications for teachers during digital training sessions.
Assessment and guidance tools are expanding as part of broader support ecosystems. Türkiye’s Digital Skills Assessment Project, the Netherlands’ ‘career file’ templates, and Luxembourg’s orientation guides seek to connect learners’ experiences with reflection and feedback.
Monitoring and data-dashboards enhance transparency and accountability. Estonia’s Youth Sector Plan includes quality-assurance tools such as the Digital Portal for Quality Assessment and Youth Monitoring Dashboard, which strengthen evidence use across ministries. Coherent implementation and sustained follow-up ensure that policy can have greater impact (Viennet and Pont, 2017[31]).
New pedagogical, digital and assessment resources support learning outcomes for adolescents when used coherently across classrooms and systems. Embedding feedback and monitoring mechanisms can help strengthen implementation, ensuring these tools enhance engagement and motivation.
The following sections provide insights into how the different policy components come together under specific policy aims that relate – although not exclusively – to supporting learners’ will, skills, or means. Typically, learner-focused policy aims tend to engage will by nurturing agency, confidence and motivation; curriculum and competency reforms tend to prioritise skills; and system-level and teacher-focused aims tend to emphasise providing the means that sustain lifelong learning through adequate structures, environments and resources.
Fostering will for lifelong learning
A majority of policies make some reference to learner will, often expressed as motivation. For instance, Estonia’s Youth Sector Development Plan encourages experimentation, self-reliance, and ownership of ideas, while the French Community of Belgium’s curriculum emphasises boosting student motivation, self-esteem, engagement, and curiosity. However, explicit attention to growth mindset, persistence, or curiosity remains less common, and when mentioned, these aspects are often aspirational goals rather than operationalised. Several reforms make no reference to motivational or attitudinal dimensions at all.
Embedding such dispositions is vital. PISA 2022 data show that students with more ambitious expectations for their future social status – an indicator of aspiration and self-belief – report significantly higher intrinsic motivation to learn (see Figure 3.3). This relationship highlights the importance of nurturing learner will during adolescence.
Percentage of students agreeing or strongly agreeing with the sentence “I love learning new things in school”, by future social status expectation
Note: Future social status expectation is based on the question “Where do you think you will stand when you are 30?”, providing an answer from 1 to 10, where 10 are the people who are best-off in society (earn most money, receive the best education and have the most respected jobs), while 0 are the worst off. Low expectations on future social status include answers from 0 to 5, while high expectations from 6 to 10.
Source: OECD (2024[1]), PISA 2022 Results (Volume V): Learning Strategies and Attitudes for Life, PISA, https://doi.org/10.1787/c2e44201-en.
The following sections outline key policy aims that countries are operationalising to strengthen learners’ will for lifelong learning: nurturing student agency and supporting social and emotional skills. It is also important to recognise another closely related policy area – promoting student engagement in schooling and preventing early school dropout and absenteeism. Although such policies were not reported through the Education Policy Outlook questionnaire, they remain essential components of broader efforts to strengthen students’ connection to school and to foster a lasting motivation and love for learning.
Nurturing student agency
Across countries, growing attention is placed on nurturing learner agency to build motivation, self-belief and sense of ownership of learning. Most reforms recognise its importance but offer limited guidance on how to make it visible in classrooms. Few define what it looks like in daily practice or offer tools to help teachers cultivate it through formative assessment and feedback. PISA data show that students who regularly engage in assessments, goal setting and self-reflection report higher motivation and confidence in their capacity to learn independently (OECD, 2024[1]).
Some policies stand out for embedding student agency directly in learning design. Estonia’s National Curriculum for Basic Schools encourage young people to set personal goals, pursue their interests, and learn from experience to take responsibility for their progress and promote self-directed learning. Similarly, Slovenia’s curriculum renewal connects the three pillars of will, skills and means in a holistic way, by combining autonomy with structured reflection and teacher support way (see Box 3.5). These approaches suggest that agency is not an abstract goal but a skill that can be taught, practiced and reinforced. Clear guidance, formative assessment and reflective routines can help teachers turn policy aims into everyday habits, building students’ confidence, curiosity and sense of belonging as lifelong learners.
Mechanisms and actions: Curricula renewal and guidance reforms are mechanisms typically adopted to build learner agency. Estonia’s National Curriculum for Basic Schools integrates goal setting, self-assessment and cross-curricular career planning to position learners as active agents, while Chile’s proposed curriculum update for grades 1–10 explicitly includes learner agency as a key goal. Career guidance initiatives, such as Netherlands’ Career Orientation and Guidance programme, use learner-owned portfolios (“career files”) and structured reflection, supported by mentoring and workplace exposure, to help young people connect learning with future goals. Other initiatives, including Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)’s Extended Schools Programme also reference learner agency as part of broader efforts to strengthen student engagement that include action planning by schools, and partnerships with other organisations.
Scope and timeline: Initiatives generally have a national scope, encompassing basic and lower secondary education, with multi-year implementation, often phased by grade or cycle.
Main actors typically involved: Actors include ministries of education, school leaders, teachers, counsellors and local education authorities. In Estonia, the Ministry of Education and Research leads implementation with educational institutions and youth organisations. The Netherlands and Northern Ireland (United Kingdom) mobilise learners, teachers and community partners under the supervision of central education authorities, ensuring coherence between local action and national priorities.
Digital and blended approaches: Digital tools play an enabling role in supporting reflection and personalisation. Estonia integrates digital curricula, online self-assessment tools and AI-driven guidance platforms, while the Netherlands employs blended models combining digital “career files” with mentoring. Slovenia uses digital authoring tools and collaborative online lesson planning portals, and Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)’s Extended Schools Programme embeds both digital and non-digital resources to connect home and school learning.
Resources required: Policies often rely on sustained funding for curriculum renewal, teacher professional learning, and guidance infrastructure. Public budgets typically fund these initiatives, complemented by mentoring structures, professional networks and school-level implementation capacity (e.g. the Netherlands and Slovenia).
Tools and resources generated: Policies often generate tools as digital portfolios, guidance templates, national curriculum portals and competency frameworks. Estonia and Slovenia provide teacher guides, self-assessment rubrics and online learning materials aligned with the curriculum. Career files and assessment guidelines to ensure consistent practice are developed by the Netherlands, while Northern Ireland (United Kingdom) produces digital guidance packs for schools.
Slovenia is modernising curricula for basic and upper secondary general education, as well as general subjects in technical and vocational education. The new curricula, to be implemented gradually from the 2026/27 school year, emphasise developing learners’ will, skills and means by fostering personal responsibility and autonomy. Students are encouraged to take ownership of their learning, make informed choices, and develop agency through active participation, goal setting, curiosity and a growth mindset supported by inquiry-based learning and problem-solving.
The renewed curricula promote higher-order thinking by encouraging critical thinking, creativity and reasoning in meaningful contexts, and support metacognitive growth by guiding learners to reflect on and monitor their own learning. Real-life relevance is ensured through authentic, interdisciplinary tasks that connect knowledge to practice and strengthen engagement.
Digital competence is treated as a cross-curricular priority, emphasising access to and meaningful use of learning technologies for creativity and communication. Implementation plans also prioritise professional development for teachers, ensuring they are equipped with the knowledge, pedagogy and values required to deliver high-quality, future-oriented education.
Source: Slovenia’s response to the Education Policy Outlook (2025): National Pre-Filled Questionnaire for Comparative Policy Analysis: Nurturing Engaged and Resilient Lifelong Learners in a World of Digital Transformation
Many reforms aim to nurture student agency but may not specify or provide guidance on how to translate it into classroom practice. Clear guidance can help teachers and schools turn agency into everyday practice, building students’ sense of identity, belonging and ownership of learning.
Supporting social and emotional skills
Socio-emotional development, well-being and mental health are increasingly prominent in national policies. Systems now recognise more that building confidence, resilience and cooperation is as vital as academic success. Dispositions such as persistence, curiosity and cooperation are connected with motivation, engagement and academic achievement, and greatly support learners’ adaptability and well-being throughout life (OECD, 2024[1]; OECD, 2024[4]). Yet few policies provide clear strategies to help schools and teachers make these goals part of daily practice. Guidance and teacher professional learning offerings could encompass socio-emotional skill development, helping teachers to integrate this into their pedagogy and shape and stimulate these behaviours every day in class (OECD, 2025[32]; Kankaraš and Suarez-Alvarez, 2019[33]).
Policies in China, Bulgaria and Slovenia link learners’ will and skills by combining emotional development with self-awareness, critical thinking and inclusion. China’s Guidelines for Mental Health Education, combine self-awareness development with social-emotional learning, and Bulgaria’s Social-Emotional Skills Programme provides an emphasis on self-awareness, emotional regulation, interpersonal skills and empathy, along with growth mindset and critical thinking skills. Slovenia’s national counselling network ensures every school can access psychological and developmental support.
Mechanisms and actions: Approaches typically combine curriculum integration, counselling services, and home-school collaboration, as seen in China. Dedicated programmes, such as Bulgaria’s, strengthen self-awareness, emotional regulation and interpersonal skills. Specialist counselling services are institutionalised in Slovenia, where nationwide school-based teams deliver preventive and developmental support, while the French Community of Belgium’s common curriculum embeds well-being and inclusion objectives.
Scope and timeline: Most aim for universal coverage within national systems, supported by localised implementation in schools and communities. Examples include Iceland’s Act on the Integration of Services in the Interest of Children’s Prosperity or France’s pHARE anti-bullying programme, both of which link education, health and social sectors.
Main actors involved: Efforts are often jointly led by ministries, school-based counsellors, psychologists, health agencies and NGOs. China links school-based psychological counselling and home-school cooperation, while Slovenia’s nationwide counselling service ensures that every school has access to professionals supporting well-being and inclusion.
Digital and blended approaches: Digital tools often complement traditional materials and activities, offering online resources and interactive activities for students and teachers (e.g. French Community (Belgium)).
Resources required: Policies tend to rely on sustained public funding and cross-sectoral coordination. In China, implementation is supported by local education authorities and health partnerships, while fundings allocations to schools are provided by central government.
Resources generated: Initiatives often produce counselling frameworks, well-being toolkits, and outreach materials. Both initiatives in China and Slovenia connect well-being with teaching and family engagement.
Socio-emotional skills are the foundation of adolescent motivation, engagement and well-being. When schools are equipped to build skills such as persistence, curiosity and empathy, they help young people build the confidence and adaptability needed for life. Systems must ensure these supports reach all students, bridging gaps across gender, age and socio-economic groups.
Developing skills for lifelong learning
Across education systems, policies place the greatest emphasis on developing skills for lifelong learning – more so than on explicitly fostering learners’ will or providing the means. Transversal competencies such as problem-solving, creativity, collaboration, and digital literacy, are the most frequently prioritised. Austria’s curriculum reform highlights critical and innovative thinking alongside environmental and digital competencies, while Estonia’s AI-Leap Programme promotes responsible use of AI and adaptive learning strategies.
Foundational skills, such as literacy and numeracy, remain a key concern. Policies like Mexico’s Common Curriculum Framework; France’s Reinforcement of Fundamentals seek to strengthen these, while metacognitive skills such as planning, self-monitoring, and self-regulation, receive uneven attention. They are included in strategies such as Estonia’s Education Strategy 2035, Bulgaria’s curriculum modernisation, and Chile’s Curriculum Prioritisation for the Comprehensive Reactivation of Learning, but remain less operationalised.
The following sections outline key policy aims that countries are operationalising to strengthen learners’ skills for lifelong learning: ensuring effective teacher practices and developing transversal competencies.
Ensuring effective teacher practices
Teachers are central to shaping adolescents’ curiosity, confidence and learning motivation. After accounting for students’ and schools’ socio-economic background, stronger perceived teacher support is positively associated with higher mathematics achievement in most systems (see Figure 3.4). Beyond achievement, students who report high levels of teacher support also demonstrate stronger learning dispositions: PISA 2022 results indicate that they are more likely to use critical thinking skills, take greater ownership of their learning, and show higher motivation to learn mathematics (OECD, 2024[1]).
Change in mathematics performance associated with a one-unit increase in the index of teacher and family support
Note: Based on students’ report, after accounting for students' and schools' socio-economic profile. Dashed columns represent statistically non-significant changes. Diamond markers in darker shades represent statistically significant changes. *Caution is required when interpreting estimates because one or more PISA sampling standards were not met.
Source: OECD (2023[27]) PISA 2022 Results (Volume II): Learning During – and From – Disruption, PISA, , https://doi.org/10.1787/a97db61c-en.
Policies emphasise continuous, practice-based professional learning that helps teachers adapt to new curricula, integrate digital tools and foster inclusive classrooms. Initiatives such as Austria’s Curriculum Reform and Türkiye’s Dynamic Course (D3) invest in teacher professional development and modernised instructional tools, while Portugal’s Digital Transition Plan connects infrastructure investment with national teacher-training networks to embed technology into teaching.
Mechanisms and actions: Practice-based professional development helps educators integrate new content and methods into everyday teaching. Portugal’s Digital Transition Plan utilises Information Communication Technology (ICT) competence centres and “digital ambassadors” to translate tools into pedagogy. Slovenia’s curriculum reform includes systematic professional development to support delivery of updated content, pedagogy, and values, while Türkiye offers pedagogical lesson scenarios and webinars to strengthen teachers’ ability to foster motivation and agency. Professional learning is also tied to major reforms, as in China’s teacher training for mental health education and Croatia’s Whole Day School reform. Latvia has established the State Education Development Agency, a unified and strategically supervised professional support system for teachers, aiming to improve the quality of the learning process in general and vocational education, promoting student excellence and providing methodological support materials for teachers.
Scope and timeline: Initiatives generally have a national scope, spanning multiple education levels and phases of reform. Austria’s curriculum renewal began in 2023, introducing a phased rollout of teacher training in primary and lower secondary schools.
Main actors involved: Ministries, universities and professional learning providers, such as universities and regional hubs, may typically collaborate. Portugal illustrates this model through its ICT competence centres and “digital ambassadors,” which provide practice-embedded coaching for teachers to integrate technology meaningfully into pedagogy, while Türkiye mobilises national trainers and local mentors to build teachers’ techno-pedagogical capacity.
Digital and blended approaches: Non-digital approaches, such as curriculum renewal and capacity building for teachers, appear to be more commonly utilised. However, some policies combine digital and non-digital approaches. For example, Austria’s curriculum reform combines in-person professional development alongside the creation of dedicated websites, online courses and digital textbooks.
Resources required: Policies typically mobilise professional development budgets and peer networks are being implemented to translate policy into daily practice. Portugal blends government, European Social Fund and Recovery and Resilience Plan funding with ICT competence centres and Digital Ambassadors. This seeks to provide practice-embedded professional development, a national monitoring platform and a MOOC. Türkiye similarly funds scenario-based pedagogy at scale via national platforms and a 520-trainer network.
Resources generated: Reforms often produce a wide range of digital, pedagogical, and professional learning resources to sustain continuous improvement. Türkiye’s Dynamic Course (D3) programme launched an online platform with ready-to-use lesson examples, teaching ideas, and spaces for teachers to share experiences and learn from each other. In Slovenia and Croatia, governments developed online curriculum websites, teacher handbooks, and digital examples of good lessons to support inclusive teaching.
Teacher practices and the quality of teacher–student relationships are powerful drivers of engagement and learning in adolescence, as well as lifelong learning outcomes. Ensuring effective teaching means investing in continuous, practice-based professional learning that helps teachers link new curricula, digital tools and formative assessment to students’ motivation and sense of agency.
Developing transversal competencies
Countries are embedding transversal competencies in curricula, including through reforms that seek to integrate creativity, communication, problem-solving, sustainability and citizenship into core learning. These competencies seek to connect immediate academic goals with the broader capacities needed for lifelong adaptability and with classroom practice and assessment. For example, the German-speaking Community of Belgium’s “My Education. My Future!” embeds civic, social-emotional and media competencies into the curriculum, and Finland’s modernisation of upper general secondary education involves the development of new curricula and assessment methods.
Reforms in areas such as curriculum and pedagogical renewal, and digitalisation require sustained horizons and coherent implementation if they are to translate into meaningful and lasting improvements. As highlighted in OECD research, policy implementation is not a linear process but a long-term, multi-actor effort that depends on coherent policy design, stakeholder engagement, enabling contexts, and strategic implementation plans (Viennet and Pont, 2017[31]). However, reform timelines can typically be compressed, and professional learning opportunities may not fully reflect the depth of pedagogical change required.
Mechanisms and actions: Curriculum reforms promote transversal competencies alongside subject mastery. Austria’s new curricula integrate critical thinking, collaboration and creativity; Poland’s Graduate Profiles articulate transversal skills and values; Portugal’s Students’ Profiles at the end of compulsory schooling is structured into principles, vision, values and competence areas; and Czechia’s curriculum reform develops computational thinking, coding and modelling. Supporting materials, renewed textbooks and new assessment tools complement these frameworks.
Scope and timeline: Universal national coverage is typically adopted to guarantee coherence and legitimacy, often phased by grade or cycle, for example as seen in Austria and Poland.
Main actors involved: Policies typically brings together ministries, curriculum and evaluation institutes, universities and teacher communities to co-design competence-based frameworks, develop supporting materials, and align assessment with learning outcomes. In Austria, the Ministry of Education, IQS and teacher colleges jointly developed its new curricula integrating transversal competences.
Digital and blended approaches: Digital supports play a growing role in embedding transversal competencies within learning and teaching, while blended models combining face-to-face training, online resource hubs, and peer collaboration ensure professional learning remains continuous and accessible. Austria provides online professional learning, open-access curricular materials, and interactive teacher guides to promote competence-based instruction, while Czechia integrates digital learning platforms and coding environments to develop computational thinking.
Resources required: Initiatives are funded mainly through core budgets for system-wide reform, complemented by support materials and partnerships with external experts. Poland’s Graduate Profile was developed through national funding, engaging teachers and other supporting institutions, such as professional development institutions, textbook publishers and authors, and examiners and evaluators.
Resources generated: Most reforms generate new produce a range of resources, including curricular frameworks and competency models that articulate skills for lifelong learning such as creativity, problem-solving, and self-regulation. Reforms focused on enhancing teacher practices and implementation of curriculum typically include resources and guides, such as teacher guides and online repositories (e.g. Austria’s Pädagogik-Paket, or Slovenia’s curriculum portal).
Embedding transversal competencies in curricula is essential for preparing students for a fast-changing world but success depends on how deeply these competencies are integrated into teaching and assessment. Sustained professional learning, coherent frameworks, and time for teachers to adapt are what turn curriculum goals like creativity, collaboration and problem-solving into lived classroom practices.
Creating the means for lifelong learning
Policies that focus on the means for lifelong learning typically aim to ensure that adolescents have equitable access to the conditions that enable learning to continue and evolve. The following sections outline key policy aims that countries are operationalising to create the means for lifelong learning, including harnessing digitalisation for inclusion, personalisation and engagement, strengthening career readiness and guidance systems to prepare students for their future learning and work, and embedding cross-sectoral collaboration.
Developing the means for lifelong learning also involves diversifying secondary education to meet varied student interests and needs, including through high-quality vocational education and training (VET) pathways and certificates recognised by both higher-education institutions and employers. Although few examples were reported through the Education Policy Outlook questionnaire, such measures remain essential to valuing multiple learning routes and supporting smoother transitions into adulthood.
Harnessing digitalisation
Digital environments are now central to how adolescents learn and interact, making competencies for using technology critically and independently indispensable. PISA 2022 shows that students who can regulate their own learning online – setting goals, evaluating sources, and adapting strategies – perform better in mathematics. Increasingly, education systems increasingly use digital tools to broaden participation and make learning more relevant, engaging and personalised. These aims typically combine a focus on learners’ skills and means to expand digital access while developing capacity.
As OECD evidence highlights, while digital technologies in education systems have great potential for increasing agency in learning, they are not transformative forces in themselves. Their impact depends on educators’ capacity to use them in ways that can strengthen pedagogy and improve learning outcomes. Effective policies therefore pair technology with clear pedagogical aims, capacity building and safeguards for equity and privacy. At the same time, partnerships with technology providers have expanded rapidly, but governance frameworks for data use, privacy and interoperability are rarely specified, despite their importance for equity and for mitigating digital risks (OECD, 2023[19]).
Mechanisms and actions: Countries are combining digital infrastructure with governance and accountability mechanisms. Estonia’s AI-Leap Programme merges national investment in AI with personalised learning and critical digital literacy. France’s 2023-2027 Digital Strategy for Education introduces AI principles, and Türkiye’s Digital Skills Assessment creates competency benchmarks and feedback loops feeding into continuing professional development (CPD).
Scope and timeline: Most initiatives operate nationally but include targeted support to close digital divides, focusing on rural or disadvantaged areas, such as in Estonia, Finland and Portugal.
Main actors involved: Implementation involves education ministries, municipalities, EdTech firms and universities in co-developing infrastructure, AI-enabled tools and data systems. Estonia’s AI-Leap is one such example: launched by Ministry of Education and Research in partnership with universities and the private sector, with implementation managed by a dedicated foundation.
Digital and blended approaches: Digital platforms and AI-enabled systems increasingly support teachers in monitoring progress and personalising instruction. Estonia’s ecosystem (eKool, Stuudium, Opiq) and Costa Rica’s AI pilots in vocational schools illustrate how learning management systems can complement (not replace) face-to-face interaction.
Resources required: Significant investment is directed to infrastructure, connectivity, devices and capacity building. Estonia finances its digital ecosystem through national and EU funds; AI-Leap combines public and private resources for licences, professional learning and coordination. Costa Rica’s strategy has equipped 97% of schools with digital access and established innovation centres in half of its regions. The Slovak Republic invests EUR 200–250 million annually in broadband, cloud services and IT coordination, while Latvia prioritises portable equipment and training for socially vulnerable learners.
Resources generated: Reforms tend to develop AI-assisted platforms, integrated learning management systems, and professional development frameworks (Estonia’s AI-Leap; Portugal’s Development of the Digital Development Plans (PADDE); Türkiye’s Dynamic Course (D3); Lithuania’s EdTech reforms; France’s 2023-2027 Digital Strategy for Education) to make learning more engaging and data-informed.
Digitalisation can enhance access and personalisation, but its impact depends on meaningful use. Sustained investment in teacher capability and coherent digital governance will determine whether innovation leads to equitable, lasting improvement.
Strengthening career readiness and guidance systems
Across countries, growing attention is being given to career readiness as a bridge between schooling and future pathways. Career guidance helps students understand their interests, explore opportunities, and connect learning with life goals. However, in many systems, guidance provision remains fragmented or uneven. Employers tend to play a stronger role in vocational education but are less visible in general upper secondary reforms. This suggests a missed opportunity to strengthen career readiness and align learning with labour market needs.
Examples such as Norway’s Educational Choice subject, and New Zealand’s Inspiring the Future, which connects students with diverse role models, illustrate how structured reflection and exposure can make career learning both relevant and motivating.
Mechanisms and actions: Mandatory career-learning programmes guide students to reflect on their interests and explore work options. In Norway, the Educational Choice subject includes self-reflection, job shadowing and school visits. New Zealand’s Inspiring the Future connects students with diverse role models to broaden aspirations, and Sweden’s vocational reforms enhance pathways between schools and employers through joint projects and work-based learning. Digital portfolios and online career guidance platforms also help students track progress and plan their futures.
Scope and timeline: Programmes are usually targeted or regional in scope. The Netherlands, for instance, provided subsidies for 700 schools in the initial years of implementation to support heterogeneous grouping, in which various tracks in secondary education are combined.
Main actors involved: Collaboration between schools, teachers, mentors, employers and community organisations is central. Such partnerships can help students connect their interests with future learning and work opportunities. The Netherlands’ Career Orientation and Guidance framework, for instance, requires lower secondary students to develop and manage personal “career files” with teacher and mentor support, and encourage reflection on skills, interests and career aspirations (see Box 3.6).
Digital and blended approaches: Employer partnerships and work placements, though not frequently identified within the analysed policies, provide experiential and hands-on learning for students, while digital portfolios and online resources are operationalised as part of new approaches to encourage student reflection and planning.
Resources required: Initiatives typically mobilise human resourcing (teachers, mentors, external partners) as the primary lever, with some digital supports to organise information and facilitate reflection. The Netherlands and Norway integrate mentoring, workplace exposure and online resources. These are usually embedded in core education budgets, but dedicated allocations for guidance staff or employer engagement are rarely detailed.
Resources generated: Systems develop mentoring guides, reflection templates and career exploration materials. For example, the Netherlands provides “career file” templates and assessment rubrics; Luxembourg organises orientation fairs and decision tools; and Norway offers guidance materials.
In the Netherlands, Career Orientation and Guidance is a compulsory component of lower secondary vocational (VMBO) programmes. It aims to ensure that all lower secondary vocational students are systematically supported to explore who they are, reflect on what they can do, and prepare for future education and career pathways.
Several resources have been developed to support implementation, including templates and examples for career files, assessment guidelines for career competencies, and mentoring protocols. Schools have flexibility to adapt or design their own approaches, using the Netherlands’ five career competencies as a common framework. Learners are encouraged to take ownership of their development through a personalised ‘career file’.
Reflection is central: learners are encouraged to think critically about their experiences, interests, and aspirations, and to articulate what these mean for their future education and career choices. A career file can serve as one possible format for this reflection, a portfolio where learners collect and connect their insights and goals, but schools may also choose other forms that suit their pedagogical vision.
At system level, trust is placed in teachers and mentors to assess whether students meet the career education requirement. Local authorities can provide funding and models to support schools in facilitating continuity, for instance through ‘transfer files’, which share key learner information between institutions.
Source: Netherlands’ response to the Education Policy Outlook (2025): National Pre-Filled Questionnaire for Comparative Policy Analysis: Nurturing Engaged and Resilient Lifelong Learners in a World of Digital Transformation.
Career readiness helps students see the purpose of learning and navigate transitions with confidence. When schools, mentors and employers work together, young people can better understand the purpose of learning and are more prepared for transitions in a changing world. Extending such connections beyond vocational tracks can make guidance a stronger driver of lifelong learning.
Embedding cross-sectoral collaboration
A smaller but growing group of countries are embedding cross-sector coordination to address learners’ complex needs. These models recognise that success in education depends not only on what happens in classrooms, but also on the support systems surrounding young people, including health, family support, and social welfare. OECD evidence shows that family and school environments are central to shaping students’ motivation and learning behaviours (OECD, 2024[1]).
In many systems, however, cooperation between sectors remains ad hoc. Roles, responsibilities and accountability are often loosely defined, and data sharing is limited. As a result, adolescents facing multiple challenges can still experience fragmented or inconsistent support.
Examples include Iceland’s Integration of Services Act, which connects education, health and social sectors through shared local partnerships, and Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)’s Extended Schools Programme, which funds school-community services such as mentoring and homework clubs. Such governance models seek to reflect a shift toward systems that see learning, health and welfare as interdependent.
Mechanisms and actions: Shared frameworks and local partnerships as in Iceland’s Integration of Services Act, which links education, health and social sectors, and Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)’s Extended Schools Programme, which funds school-community services such as mentoring and homework clubs.
Scope and timeline: Initiatives are national in scope but rely on local implementation and tend to operate through multi-year funding cycles and phased delivery (e.g. Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)).
Main actors involved: Coordination typically involves ministries, local authorities, schools, and community organisations. Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)’s A Fair Start programme brings together the Department of Education, other government departments, local authorities and communities, while the Extended Schools Programme brings together a range of actors across school, community organisations and other statutory bodies (see Box 3.7).
Digital and blended approaches: Digital tools support coordination and information sharing across sectors. Estonia uses platforms to track outcomes and support joint planning, while Iceland is developing shared case management systems to link schools, health professionals, and social workers, improving early identification and support for children.
Resources required: Sustained funding and institutional capacity are essential. Iceland’s Acts are financed jointly by national and municipal budgets, while Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)’s Extended Schools Programme receives annual grants from the Department of Education, while A Fair Start pools funding from multiple departments. In Estonia, resources are directed toward shared data systems, research partnerships, and cross-ministerial coordination.
Resources generated: Shared data systems, guidance frameworks, and monitoring tools improve collaboration and accountability. Estonia developed the Youth Monitoring Dashboard and quality-assurance frameworks to support evidence-based coordination, while Iceland introduced interagency training materials and common reporting protocols for local teams.
Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)’s Extended Schools Programme (ESP) aims to improve educational achievement among disadvantaged children and young people. Schools develop tailored programmes based on local needs. Funding is directed to schools in areas of high deprivation and includes incentives for collaborative working through Extended Schools clusters. Since 2006, over GBP 170 million has been invested in supporting these initiatives.
A wide range of actors contribute to planning and delivery. School leaders, teaching and support staff, and community and voluntary organisations work together to design and deliver activities that make flexible use of school facilities, often outside normal school hours. The Education Authority’s Community and Schools Team provides coordination and guidance, while the Department of Education ensures strategic oversight and funding. Digital tools, such as the Northern Ireland Extended Schools Information System (NIESIS), can be used by schools for planning, delivering, and evaluating services. Other statutory bodies, such as Health and Social Care Trusts, may also be involved in various supports offered under individual school programmes.
Source: Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)’s response to the Education Policy Outlook (2025): National Pre-Filled Questionnaire for Comparative Policy Analysis: Nurturing Engaged and Resilient Lifelong Learners in a World of Digital Transformation, Department of Education (n.d.[34]), https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/articles/extended-schools-programme, accessed 04 September 2025
Strengthening systematic collaboration and giving families a stronger voice in policy and practice can help young people see themselves as active learners and citizens through and beyond compulsory education.
Adolescence is a pivotal stage in the lifelong learning journey. It is a time when students’ motivation and confidence can deepen or wane, yet also when the will, skills and means that sustain learning can be most deliberately shaped. Effective policy at this stage can determine whether young people continue to learn, adapt and contribute throughout life.
Evidence from PISA 2022 and the policy examples analysed for this chapter show growing momentum: countries are working to strengthen learner agency and socio-emotional learning, renewing curricula to include transversal and digital competencies, and expanding well-being and guidance supports. The next phase of reform must focus on connecting and sustaining initiatives that help adolescents engage meaningfully in learning and develop foundations for the future.
Fostering will for lifelong learning: Many reforms now recognise motivation, engagement and socio-emotional learning as integral to achievement, but these goals are not yet fully embedded in practice. Supporting teachers to cultivate curiosity, resilience and a sense of belonging – through formative assessment, reflective pedagogy and inclusive classroom environments – remains essential. Whole-school approaches that integrate well-being, guidance and learner voice can help prevent disengagement and build confidence in learning.
Developing skills for lifelong learning: Adolescence offers a crucial window to deepen transversal, digital and foundational skills. Curricular renewal is progressing in many systems, but sustained teacher professional learning and collaboration are needed to translate these aims into everyday teaching. An explicit focus on supporting metacognitive strategies and self-directed learning can strengthen students’ ability to manage their own learning and apply knowledge across contexts. Coherence between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment is key to making these reforms lasting and equitable.
Creating the means for lifelong learning: Equitable delivery depends on aligning resources, partnerships and governance. Responsible digitalisation – focused on safe, purposeful and inclusive use of technology – can expand access while supporting innovation. Stronger cross-sector coordination, linking education with health, social and community services, can make support for well-being and transitions more coherent. Expanding guidance systems and exposure to diverse pathways can also strengthen relevance and motivation, especially for those at risk of exclusion.
Next steps for policymakers. To ensure that adolescence becomes a bridge toward lifelong learning, systems could focus on:
Embedding socio-emotional learning and learner agency across curricula, pedagogy and assessment, including providing guidance on what this looks like in daily practice.
Investing in sustained professional learning to equip teachers with the skills and confidence to nurture learners’ will, skill and means for lifelong learning.
Aligning curriculum, digital and well-being reforms within coherent implementation frameworks.
Expanding high-quality guidance and transition supports that connect learning with future study or employment opportunities.
Strengthening coordination across education, health and social services to provide continuous, equitable support.
Together, these directions can help every young person leave compulsory education with the will, skills and means to keep learning throughout life.
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A list of policies reviewed for early to mid-adolescence can be found below.
Source: Education Policy Outlook (2025), National Pre-Filled Questionnaire for Comparative Policy Analysis: Nurturing Engaged and Resilient Lifelong Learners in a World of Digital Transformation