The OECD would like to thank the Department for Education in England (United Kingdom) and the Department of Education in the United States for co-sponsoring this cross-country project and the publication of this report. In particular, Alex Perry, Ben Rockliffe, Helen Wood, Luke Clarke and Rosie Chalam-Judge from the Department for Education in England and Gregory Henschel from the United States Department of Education have supported and guided the work throughout this study, including shaping questionnaire, organising stakeholder interviews, relevant events and review processes. In addition to these two countries, Denmark, Germany and Japan provided valuable input and support to the work through organising stakeholder interviews in their respective country and providing additional inputs. Special thanks go to Torben Schuster from the Danish Ministry of Education, Oliver Diehl (BMBF) and Birgitta Ryberg (KMK) in Germany, and Tetsuya Kashihara (MEXT) in Japan. For the list of interviewed institutions, see Annex 1.A (Chapter 1). The OECD is also grateful for the support received from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre for the extraction of the SELFIE data.
We also greatly appreciate the time given by hundreds of other colleagues who contributed to this report by generously sharing their experience and insights on the topic throughout the project period. Particular thanks is also owed to national experts of VET and skills, who commented on the draft reports and provided background information through an OECD questionnaire.