Adult Skills and Working Opportunities (invited discussion)

1. Adult Skills and Working Opportunities(invited discussion) Irena Križman Director-General of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia

2. Adult Skills and Working Opportunities • Trends in worker requirements and the need for better information to make more informed decisions in a global economy (Randal W. Eberts) • PIAAC, OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (Andreas Schleicher)

3. Policy Context • Technology change and pressure on the demand for skilled labour • Globalisation – skilled intensive products have a compatitive advantage • In the face of population ageing it is necessary to ensure that workers’ skills do not erode with age

4. Policy Issues – to ensure people to have adequate competence • Type of skills most in need • The extent to which there are mismatches between available skills and economic and social requirements • Mechanisms through which skills are acquired and lost

5. PIAAC - Data Strategy • Assessing the impact of the competencies on social and economic outcomes on the individual and aggregate levels • Assessing the performance of the education and training system in generating the required competencies • Clarifying the policy levers that could contribute to enhancing competencies

6. PIAAC- Data Strategy cont. • Direct and indirect assessment methods • Balance between the ICT component and the more traditional reading and numerical aspects • Balance between the breath and depth of the direct assessment • Developing good practices

7. PIAAC - Governance Strategy • Co-ordination of PIAAC at the international level by OECD • The participation of other EU non-OECD countries is expected • Worker and employer groups need to be considered – co-ordination at the national level • Should the role of the official statistics at the international as well as the national level strengthen?

8. Human Capital Measuring: what should be the role of NSOs? Conference of European Statisticians 2007, three possible strategies: • Developing the databases on human capital for research and analyses • Developing methods for output measures in the government sector • Full integration of capital measures in national accounts.

9. Questions • How to adopt as best as possible the concept of literacy to the information age? • How to assess cross-country comparability of the job-requirement approach and skills mismatch? • How to better utilise the existing data sources (comparability with the existing surveys, use of register sources)?

10. Questions (cont.) • What synergies can be expected from greater involvement of official statistics in PIAAC? • What kind of roles should the NSOs play in PIAAC when measuring the human and social capital? • PIAAC is the OECD Programe for the International Assesment of Adult Competencies and should be realised by using the cost efficiency approach to the data sources.

11. Thank you very much for your attention.