Survey of Adult Skills: reader's companion

The 2023 Survey of Adult Skills, a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), provides a comprehensive overview of adults' literacy, numeracy, and adaptive problem solving skills - skills that are fundamental for personal, economic, and societal development. These key information‑processing skills provide the foundation for access to employment, higher wages and continuous learning, while enabling individuals to navigate the complexities of their personal and civic lives. A total of 31 countries and economies, mostly OECD members, participated in the 2023 survey. As 27 of these countries also participated in the previous cycle of the Survey of Adult Skills, the data provide valuable insights into how literacy and numeracy skills have evolved over the past decade. This volume is a companion to 'Do adults have the skills they need to thrive in a changing world?: Survey of Adult Skills 2023' [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 158.823], which presents results from the 2023 survey.

The volume offers an overview of the 'what' and 'how' of the 2023 survey with the primary objective of helping readers understand and interpret the results of the survey. To this end, it summarises, in less technical ways, the methodologies underpinning the design of the survey and its operational aspects. A more comprehensive and technically oriented presentation of the methodological aspects of the survey and its implementation can be found in the forthcoming 'Survey of Adult Skills 2023 technical report'. This reader's companion addresses four topics: (1) what the 2023 Survey of Adult Skills measures; (2) how the results from the survey are reported; (3) how the survey was designed and implemented; and (4) how the 2023 Survey of Adult Skills is related to previous adult skills surveys and to the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

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