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Impressive progress has been made in raising participation in early childhood education as well as tertiary educational attainment over the past 30 years. However, the inflow of poorly educated youth into the labour market is unusually heavy for a high-income country, largely on account of high drop-out rates in lower secondary education which, in turn, reflect one of the highest grade repetition rates in the OECD. The supply of workers with intermediate vocational skills is surprisingly low, despite the high return, in terms of labour market outcomes that these skills offer, even if they have recently deteriorated. There is room to raise learning outcomes up to the end of compulsory school, as measured by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), although, owing to a compressed distribution of such outcomes, the share of poorly performing pupils is not unusually large. While significant reforms have been undertaken to address these problems, more measures are needed to reduce grade repetition and raise education outcomes, by improving accountability of schools and school staff, as well as by raising school autonomy further than has already occurred. Vocational training needs to become more attractive. In tertiary education, few Spanish universities have attained a high level of international standing, and scope remains to improve the contribution tertiary attainment can make to gains in economic welfare, notably by reforming funding arrangements.

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The 2006 edition of ‘Education at a glance’ provides a current and comparable set of indicators on the performance of education systems and represents the consensus of professional thinking on how to measure the current state of education internationally. The indicators look at who participates in education, what is spent on it, how education systems operate and the results achieved. Indicators comprise a wide range of outcomes, from comparisons of student’s performance in key subject areas to the impact of education on earnings and on adults’ chances of employment. New material in this edition includes: further analysis of results of the 2003 survey of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), including student access to, and use of, ICT; analysis of the lowest performing students; the effects of family background on students’ performance and the way classes are organised in schools; trend data on tertiary qualifications, including projections for the year 2014; trend data on survival rates in tertiary education; the impact of demographic trends on education systems, as well as projections on expenditure for the year 2015; trend data on expected years of education; instruction time per subject for 9-to-14-year-olds; a picture of student mobility and the significance of internationalisation of higher education. The ExcelR spreadsheets used to create the tables and charts are available via the StatLinks printed in the book. The chapters are as follows: The output of educational institutions and the impact of learning; Financial and human resources invested in education; Access to education, participation and progression; The learning environment and organisation of schools. Included as appendices are: Characteristics of educational systems; Reference statistics; Sources, methods and technical notes. Show less

This brief paper notes that one-third of the population of OECD countries hold an upper secondary vocational education and training (VET) qualification as their highest educational attainment, and it is estimated that nearly half will graduate from a VET programme in their lifetime. However, keeping up with technology developments in industry can be a costly endeavour, although partnering with employers can help to spread the cost of VET programmes. While vocational qualifications offer young people a good chance of finding employment, they are sometimes seen as a second-class choice and limit their value in the labour market overall. Countries need to ensure their vocational programmes offer all students the basic skills they need in the labour market and in life, as well as the opportunity to progress on to tertiary education if they wish.

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Demographic pressure and the youth bulge in the developing world pose a major employment challenge. This situation is exacerbated by insufficient job creation, scarce formal wage employment opportunities and vulnerability in the workplace. For these reasons, fostering youth entrepreneurship has gained importance in the global and national development policy agenda. This report aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on the role of youth entrepreneurship in generating employment in developing countries. It is based on the analysis of mixed labour force and enterprise surveys conducted in Cote D'Ivoire, Madagascar, Peru and Viet Nam, as well as evidence on the impact of entrepreneurship programmes.

This report's findings add to the global debate on youth entrepreneurship in three ways. First, it constitutes an unprecedented effort to capture the real situations and multiple faces of young entrepreneurs in selected developing countries. Second, it provides new empirical evidence on the determinants of youth entrepreneurial performance. Third, it proposes a policy roadmap based on lessons learned from recent meta-analyses of the effectiveness of entrepreneurship programmes.

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Education at a Glance is the OECD’s annual round-up of data and analysis on education, providing a rich, comparable and up-to-date array of indicators on education systems in the OECD’s 30 member countries and in a number of partner economies. The 2008 edition of ‘Education at a glance: OECD indicators’ looks at who participates in education, what is spent on it and how education systems operate and the results achieved. The latter includes indicators on a wide range of outcomes, from comparisons of students’ performance in key subject areas to the impact of education on earnings and on adults’ chances of employment. New material in this edition includes: entry rates in tertiary education by field of study; data on the skills of 15-year-olds in science; an analysis of the socio-economic background of 15-year-olds and the role of their parents; data on the extent to which the socioeconomic status of parents affects students’ participation in higher education; data on the returns to education; data on the governance of higher education institutions; an analysis of efficiency in the use of resources; data on evaluations and assessments within education systems; and a comparison of the levels of decision-making in education across countries.

Excerpt from published abstract.

‘Highlights from Education at a Glance 2008’ is indexed at TD/TNC 95.605. Show less

The main purpose of the OECD's 'Thematic review of tertiary education' is to provide policy makers with information and analysis to assist them in formulating and implementing policies to achieve national social and economic objectives through tertiary education. Its key objectives are to: synthesise research-based evidence on the impact of tertiary education policies and disseminate this knowledge among participating countries; identify innovative and successful policy initiatives and practices; facilitate exchanges of lessons and experiences among countries; and identify future policy options. The review, which involved 24 countries (Australia, Belgium - Flemish Community, Chile, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), 'examines how the organisation, management and delivery of tertiary education can help countries achieve their economic and social objectives'. As part of the review, each of the participating countries was asked to prepare a country background report. This document is the country background report for the Netherlands. Its contents are: The national context of tertiary education; General description of the tertiary education system; The tertiary education system and the labour market; The regional role of tertiary education; The role of tertiary education in research and innovation; Achieving equity in and through tertiary education; Resourcing the tertiary education system; Planning, governing and regulating the system; Assuring and improving the quality of tertiary education; Internationalisation and globalisation of tertiary education; Conclusion.

Documents from this thematic review are indexed from TD/TNC 89.551 to TD/TNC 89.585. Show less

This annual edition of Labour Force Statistics provides detailed statistics on population, labour force, employment and unemployment, broken down by gender, as well as unemployment duration, employment status, employment by sector of activity and part-time employment. It also contains participation and unemployment rates by gender and detailed age groups as well as comparative tables for the main components of the labour force. Data are available for each OECD member country and for OECD-Total, Euro area and European Union. The time series presented in the publication cover 20 years for most countries. It also provides information on the sources and definitions used by member countries in the compilation of those statistics.

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For some years now, many OECD countries have been concerned about the time tertiary students take to complete their studies. To get more workers to enter the labour market at an earlier age, they have developed policies to encourage students to graduate sooner. For example, the reforms following the Bologna Declaration in 1999 introducing a new degree structure in European countries were explicitly motivated by a policy objective to reduce the time students spend studying. This brief paper looks at whether these policies have been successful in terms of the age at which university students earn their first degree?

[Key findings are that]: (1) across OECD countries, the median age students first graduated from university fell by six months between 2005 and 2011; (2) the median age of first graduation ranges from around 22 in Belgium and the United Kingdom to over 27 in Iceland and Israel; (3) the percentage of part-time students has increased from 19.8 per cent in 2005 to 22.0 per cent in 2011, suggesting that more flexible routes between study and work are slowly becoming more widespread; and (4) the percentage of older students (aged 30 and over) entering universities has remained constant at around 10 to 11 per cent on average between 2005 and 2011.

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This annual publication provides data on the state of education around the world. These indicators can be used to assist governments in building more effective and equitable education systems. The 2017 edition presents a new focus on fields of study, investigating both trends in enrolment at upper secondary and tertiary level, student mobility, and labour market outcomes of the qualifications obtained in these fields. The publication also introduces for the first time a full chapter dedicated to the Sustainable Development Goals, providing an assessment of where OECD and partner countries stand on their way to meeting the SDG targets. Finally, two new indicators are developed and analysed in the context of participation and progress in education: an indicator on the completion rate of upper secondary students and an indicator on admission processes to higher education. The report covers all 35 OECD countries and a number of partner countries (Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Lithuania, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia and South Africa). The contents are as follows: The output of educational institutions and the impact of learning; Financial and human resources invested in education; Access to education, participation and progression; The learning environment and organisation of schools.

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This review of higher education policy in Mexico was undertaken by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1994, before Mexico became a member. Higher education in Mexico has witnessed an impressive expansion and its number of enrolments compares with many other OECD countries. A central policy issue is whether higher education provision now meets the needs of society and serves further economic development. The team of OECD experts found that these structures, designed at a time when participation was much more restricted, are now too rigid and complex. The review has led to a number of recommendations on quantitative priorities; equity; quality and relevance; differentiation and flexibility; staff development; and the steering and governance of the system and institutions. Show less