This report was produced by the Transitions in Upper Secondary Education project in the Policy Advice and Implementation Division of the OECD Education and Skills Directorate. The report was led by Hannah Kitchen and Rebecca Frankum (Transitions in Upper Secondary Education, OECD Secretariat). The report was developed in close collaboration with Dr. Lena Gray (Independent assessment researcher, Scotland, United Kingdom) who drafted parts of the report and provided extensive guidance, direction and input throughout.
The report would not have been possible without the members of the Informal Working Group on Certification and Assessment who steered its development. The Informal Working Group members are detailed in Annex A. We thank them for graciously providing their time and insights to ensure that the report best reflects upper secondary certificates in their systems. In additional to the country representatives to the Informal Working Group, we would like to thank those who have made guest contributions as panellists and speakers at the Informal Working Group meetings, including Kendra-Jean Nwamadi (OECD Youthwise 2023 Representative), Moira Leydon (Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland), Isabel Sobrino Mate (Ceemet, European Tech and Industry Employers), Dr. Enda Carr (Clonturk Community College, Dublin, Ireland), Will Duffield (Nudgee College, Queensland, Australia) and Jack McGinn (Irish Second-Level Students’ Union). We would also like to thank the Finnish Union of Upper Secondary School Students and the representatives of the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) for their contributions, which helped shaped the principles introduced and discussed in Chapter 2.
The authors of the report would like to thank colleagues from across the OECD Education and Skills Directorate who provided useful feedback and supported the development of the report. Thanks go to Noémie Le Donné (Senior Project Manager – Social and Emotional Skills), Maja Gustafsson (Analyst – Higher Education) and Miyako Ikeda (Senior Analyst – PISA). The review team thanks Andreas Schleicher (Director, OECD Education and Skills Directorate) and Paulo Santiago (Head of the Policy Advice and Implementation Division) for their guidance and direction.
Thank you to our colleagues Camilla Stronati, Shivi Chandra, Eduardo Magalhães and Manuela Fitzpatrick from the Transitions in Upper Secondary Education team for their support and the analysis of PISA data presented in Chapter 6. Thank you to Daiana Torres Lima and Rachel Linden for their administrative support and attention to detail.