Publications & Documents

Enterprises are a key provider of education and training for adults across OECD countries. Yet, policy-makers lack a detailed understanding of how training in enterprises takes place. This report opens the black box of training and informal learning in enterprises by providing in-depth insights on: i) what training and learning opportunities enterprises provide; ii) why they provide training (or not); and iii) how they make decisions about training. It presents new evidence from 100 qualitative cases studies in five countries: Austria, Estonia, France, Ireland and Italy. The findings will assist governments and social partners in designing and implementing better policies in support of training in enterprises.

La formation tout au long de la vie est indispensable aux individus pour réussir sur des marchés du travail et dans des sociétés façonnées par les mégatendances que sont l’allongement de l’espérance de vie, les développements rapides de la technologie, la mondialisation, les migrations, les changements environnementaux et la transformation numérique, mais aussi par des chocs soudains, comme a pu l’être la pandémie de COVID-19. Dans un monde en pleine mutation et en proie à l’incertitude, la formation tout au long de la vie peut les aider à s’adapter et à développer leur résilience aux chocs externes. Si l’appui des pouvoirs publics demeure fort utile pour éviter que les changements structurels ne viennent lacérer le tissu social, la création d’une culture de la formation tout au long de la vie donne à tout un chacun les moyens de s’y adapter par lui-même. Il importe donc de réunir des éléments concrets qui nous éclairent sur les solutions les plus indiquées pour l’accompagner dans cette démarche, pour qu’il puisse « apprendre à apprendre ». La présente édition des Perspectives de l’OCDE sur les compétences 2021 est consacrée à l’étude des politiques, notamment celles qui régissent l’acquisition et l’utilisation des compétences, qui s’offrent aux pouvoirs publics pour promouvoir, avec le maximum d’efficacité, la formation de tous, tout au long de la vie. Ce rapport utilise des données quantitatives comparables pour mettre en relief le rôle décisif des facteurs socio émotionnels et de motivation dans le succès d’une formation tout au long de la vie. Primordiaux en temps ordinaire pour continuer à se former tout au long de la vie, ces facteurs ont acquis une importance accrue avec la pandémie.

Many Latin American countries have experienced improvements in income over recent decades, with several of them now classified as high-income or upper middle-income in terms of conventional metrics. But has this change been mirrored in improvements across the different areas of people’s lives? How’s Life in Latin America? Measuring Well-being for Policy Making addresses this question by presenting comparative evidence for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) with a focus on 11 LAC countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay). Spanning material conditions, quality of life, resources for future well-being, and inequalities, the report presents available evidence on well-being both before and since the onset of the pandemic, based on the OECD Well-being Framework. It also identifies priorities for addressing well-being gaps and describes how well-being frameworks are used in policy within Latin America and elsewhere around the world, providing lessons for governments on what is needed to put people’s well-being at the centre of their action. The report is part of the EU Regional Facility for Development in Transition for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The COVID-19 crisis has amplified the many inadequacies and inequities in education systems. As the future continues to surprise us, the importance of resilience, adaptability and fairness in education will only grow. Equitable schooling means more than treating students equally and uniformly. To be truly fair and impactful, education should work to adapt to students’ differences.

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.

Classrooms have become increasingly diverse places where students from various backgrounds share their learning experiences. To promote inclusive school settings for all, building teacher capacity for inclusive teaching represents a key policy area. Education systems need to ensure that teachers are adequately prepared for inclusive teaching and supported throughout their career. Mechanisms to attract and retain a more diverse teaching body as well as to monitor and evaluate teacher preparation and work with respect to diversity and inclusion should also be developed. While teacher policies have increasingly addressed some of these areas, most education systems lack comprehensive capacity-building frameworks for inclusive teaching. This paper maps policies and practices to build teacher capacity for inclusive teaching across OECD countries. It then presents core elements and competences to design and implement inclusive teaching strategies. Finally, the paper reviews some of the evidence available on teacher diversity and interventions for inclusive teaching.

What knowledge do teachers need for 21st century teaching? Today, teachers have an important role in guiding and shaping students’ use of digital tools and optimising the educational benefits of their digital experiences. They are also agents of inclusive, equitable education and ambassadors of embracing diversity as an enriching element of our societies. To fulfil these roles teachers need to be experts of teaching and learning, and base their practice on a specialised and updated body of knowledge. However, there is a great need for a better understanding of the knowledge and skills that teaching in the 21st century requires. This is the ambition for the next cycle of the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) and its new Teacher Knowledge Survey (TKS) assessment module. Studying teaching as a knowledge profession across education systems is as challenging as it is important. This publication aims to contribute to this challenging endeavour by summarising the state-of-art on teacher knowledge and its measurement across systems. It discusses cutting-edge methodologies and designs and outlines implications for research as well as policies and practices for strengthening knowledge-based and evidence-informed practices in schools.

Across OECD countries, the increasing demand for evidence-based policy making has further led governments to design policies jointly with clear measurable objectives, and to define relevant indicators to monitor their achievement. This paper discusses the importance of such indicators in supporting the implementation of education policies. Building on the OECD education policy implementation framework, the paper reviews the role of indicators along each of the dimensions of the framework, namely smart policy design, inclusive stakeholder engagement, and conducive environment. It draws some lessons to improve the contribution of indicators to the implementation of education policies, while taking into account some of their perennial challenges pertaining to the unintended effects of accountability. This paper aims to provide insights to policy makers and various education stakeholders, to initiate a discussion on the use and misuse of indicators in education, and to guide future actions towards a better contribution of indicators to education policy implementation.

Digital technologies are increasingly present in young children’s lives. How can early education systems get the best out of digitalisation while minimising its risks? This is especially urgent as the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated our reliance on digital tools – tools that enabled young children to continue learning when early education centres and primary schools closed down. It is in this context that the OECD conducted a policy survey covering 34 countries and jurisdictions. It investigates how digital technologies were used to provide distance education for young children in 2020, which challenges arose and what policy changes are in the pipeline for early education.

Developing, promoting and maintaining a good professional teaching workforce from primary to upper secondary education is a policy imperative for education systems around the world. The data drawn from the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) can help policy makers and education practitioners design policies and practices that enhance teaching across education levels. This report presents TALIS 2018 findings for countries and economies that took part in the primary and upper secondary education survey. It focuses on the following research questions: What are the levels of teachers’ and school leaders’ professionalism in primary and upper secondary education? What are some of the educational challenges unique to each education level? What are the factors that could explain differences in the levels of professionalism across education levels? The findings offer a broader view of teachers and school principals across all levels of compulsory education and the similarities and differences in the issues they face. The report also offers policy reflections on these findings.