Reports

There is a discernible and growing gap between the qualifications that a university degree certifies and the actual generic, 21st-century skills with which students graduate from higher education. By generic skills, it is meant literacy and critical thinking skills encompassing problem solving, analytic reasoning and communications competency. As automation takes over non- and lower-cognitive tasks in today’s workplace, these generic skills are especially valued but a tertiary degree is a poor indicator of skills level. In the United States, the Council for Aid for Education developed an assessment of generic skills called the CLA+ and carried out testing in six countries between 2016 and 2021. This book provides the data and analysis of this 'CLA+ International Initiative'.

Au cours de la dernière décennie, le Royaume-Uni a réduit plusieurs pressions environnementales tout en développant son économie. Anticipant sa présidence de la Conférence des parties à la Convention-cadre des Nations unies sur les changements climatiques en 2021, il a montré la voie en relevant ses ambitions nationales. Cependant, la pollution atmosphérique, la détérioration des actifs naturels et les objectifs manqués en matière de biodiversité sont autant de sujets de préoccupation. Des efforts supplémentaires sont nécessaires pour réduire à zéro les émissions nettes de gaz à effet de serre d'ici 2050, se préparer au changement climatique, inverser la perte de biodiversité et mettre en place une économie circulaire plus économe en ressources. Le renforcement de la coordination entre les gouvernements britannique et décentralisés, ainsi que l'amélioration de la cohérence entre les politiques sectorielles et environnementales seront essentiels. Ceci est le troisième Examen environnemental du Royaume-Uni. Il évalue les progrès réalisés vers la croissance verte, avec un chapitre spécial consacré à la gestion des déchets et des matières et l'économie circulaire. La présente version abrégée contient le résumé, de même que l’évaluation et les recommandations officielles du rapport. Le rapport complet est disponible en anglais sur le site web de l’OCDE.

Les administrations infranationales ont un rôle déterminant à jouer dans le respect des engagements pris au regard de la biodiversité aux niveaux national et international. En s’appuyant sur l’expérience pratique de l’Écosse (Royaume-Uni), de la France et d’autres signataires de la Déclaration d’Édimbourg, ce document présente et analyse les stratégies et plans infranationaux, ainsi que les mécanismes servant à assurer la cohérence et la coordination de l’action publique. Il examine également les instruments permettant aux administrations infranationales d’obtenir des résultats probants sur le front de la biodiversité. Ce document met notamment en évidence la nécessité : de définir des objectifs clairs et mesurables en matière de biodiversité au niveau infranational ; d’intégrer la problématique de la biodiversité aux plans d’action infranationaux pour le climat, ainsi qu’aux stratégies, plans et instruments de développement urbain, rural et régional ; de promouvoir les solutions fondées sur la nature en ce qu’elles permettent aux collectivités territoriales d’exploiter les synergies entre la lutte contre le changement climatique, l’adaptation à ses effets et l’action pour la biodiversité.

OECD countries deliver publicly-funded employment services through different institutional arrangements. While in most OECD countries the majority of such services are delivered by public employment services, in two in five OECD and EU countries (or regions) they are partly or fully contracted out to external providers, including for-profit and not-for-profit entities. Contracting out employment services to outside providers offers many potential benefits: an increased flexibility to scale capacity in line with changes in unemployment, the possibility of offering services more cost-effectively, the option to better tailor services through the use of specialised service providers and the possibility to offer jobseekers choice of providers. However, achieving these benefits will depend on the actual design and monitoring of the contracting arrangements that are put in place. Focusing on the job brokerage, counselling and case-management employment services typically provided by public agencies, this paper reviews the experiences of OECD countries that have contracted out employment services through outcome-based payment schemes. It highlights the need to carefully consider questions related to the design and implementation of this form of contracting: fostering competition amongst potential providers, setting appropriate minimum service requirements and prices for different client groups, and ensuring the accountability of providers through monitoring and evaluations. These issues are discussed based on country examples, which are also detailed in factsheets contained in the online annex of the paper.

Services play a more important role in trade and employment in the United Kingdom than in most other OECD countries. The UK services sector is supported by an open and transparent trade regime, policies that support competition and innovation, and regulatory transparency that facilitates the creation of new services businesses and start-ups. That said, certain barriers to services trade remain. This report sheds light on the role of services trade in the UK economy, describing recent trends and highlighting future challenges, and explores policy options to support a sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

The transition to a circular economy in Glasgow is part of a broader journey of the city aiming to transition from being one of the greatest industrial places in the world back in the 19th century, to becoming a carbon-neutral city by 2030. The 2020 Glasgow Circular Economy Route Map seeks to enable a system where people can access local jobs and where green business practices contribute to achieving zero carbon goals. This new path, primarily driven by the collaboration between Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, Zero Waste Scotland and Glasgow City Council, can also contribute to the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, which severely affected the local economy. This report summarises the findings from a 20-month policy dialogue between the OECD, the city of Glasgow and several stakeholders, presenting the state of the art of the circular transition, the main challenges and the ways forward for the implementation of the city’s Route Map.

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.