The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a Paris-based rich-country think-tank, has just produced new research on adult literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills in 22 countries. Finland and Japan came top. The worst performers were Italy and Spain, where over a quarter of adults were rated at below the most basic reading level. The same countries fared poorly in basic maths skills, too: almost a third of grown-ups in Italy, Spain and America showed a poor grasp of numbers, against only one in eight in Finland and the Czech Republic and less than one in ten in Japan (see chart).
Yet intriguing anomalies abound. Australia, for example, ranks fourth in literacy, but its workers are below average in numeracy. And despite Germany’s established commitment to professional and technical training, the country has a relatively large number of workers who lack basic skills, lagging behind both the Nordic countries and the Czechs.
Click the link to see more: A New Study Shows Huge International Variations In Skills - Business InsiderPoints:
- “…one reason may be a gap between what vocational students learn at school and what they are expected to do in the workplace. Such schools are being encouraged to work more closely with businesses and teach more transferable skills.”
- “…governments are now turning their attention to the highly variable skills of adults.”
- “The report notes a link between high performance and more egalitarian societies such as the Nordic ones. Countries with greater social disparities, such as Britain, Germany, France and America, do less well.”
- “Well-intentioned plans to boost the brainpower of workforces by pushing more people into universities are now also looking flawed.”
- “…vocational education needs to be both more consistent and more ambitious. But the bedrock of success is improving the quality of secondary education. Without that, letters after a name do not mean much.”
Ponder: In the USA, secondary education means kindergarten to high school. How much progress has been made in building up that part of the education system?
