In a world marked by rapid technological change, complex global challenges and evolving labour markets, adults need a broad set of skills to thrive. While cognitive skills such as literacy and numeracy remain essential, social and emotional skills – the ability to collaborate, adapt, manage emotions and persevere – are increasingly recognised as critical for success and well-being throughout life.
The 2023 Survey of Adult Skills, part of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), represents an important step forward in OECD’s efforts to measure and understand these skills. For the first time the survey included self-reported measures of social and emotional skills, alongside the international assessment of adults’ proficiency in literacy, numeracy and adaptive problem solving, offering a more complete picture of the capabilities that shape adults’ lives.
This PIAAC thematic report presents new international evidence on how these skills are distributed across populations and how they relate to a wide range of outcomes – from employment and wages to health, life satisfaction and civic engagement. The findings underscore that social and emotional skills complement cognitive ones and independently contribute to adults’ success at work and beyond.
The report also calls for renewed policy attention to the development of these skills throughout adulthood. Building and sustaining social and emotional skills can help individuals adapt to change, strengthen social cohesion and foster inclusive growth. Supporting adults in cultivating these skills is therefore an investment not only in individual well-being, but also in more resilient and equitable societies.
This report was prepared by Mila Staneva, under the supervision of Claudia Tamassia (Senior project manager of PIAAC). François Keslair provided statistical and analytical support. Valuable comments were made by OECD colleagues, including Anja Meierkord, Marco Paccagnella, Nate Reinersten, Noémie Le Donné, Hannah Ulferts, Glenda Quintini, Francesca Borgonovi as well as Beatrice Rammstedt from the GESIS – Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences. Administrative support was provided by Sabrina Leonarduzzi. The PIAAC Board of Participating Countries (BPC) – co-chaired by Aviana Bulgarelli (Italy, until 2020), Ted Reininga (the Netherlands, until 2021), Katalin Zoltán (Hungary, since 2020) and James Davison (England, UK, since 2021) – steered the development of the project and of the report. Feedback and comments on this report by members of the BPC are gratefully acknowledged.