OECD survey on adult skills in technology-rich environments

The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) was initiated by the OECD and is implemented in collaboration with 25 countries and an international consortium of specialised international organisations. For the first time, an international comparative survey is assessing key skills required in information-based economies. Four categories of skills are assessed: (1) reading skills (prose, documents, and digital texts), (2) components of reading abilities of people with low levels of literacy, (3) real-life mathematics skills, and (4) cognitive problem-solving skills in technology-rich environments. In addition to the assessment of skills rich individual background data on the uses of these skills, education, employment, etc. is being collected. The first international report on the results of PIAAC will be published towards the end of 2013. The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning participated as an observer in the meeting of the Board of the Participating Countries on 3 and 4 May 2012 in Berlin which was hosted by the German government.