OECD employment outlook 2016

This 2016 edition of the OECD Employment Outlook provides an in-depth review of recent labour market trends and short-term prospects in OECD countries. Chapter 1 examines recent labour market developments, with a special focus on vulnerable youth who are neither working nor in education or training. The size of this group has grown in recent years in many OECD countries and governments will need to take vigorous policy measures if they are to meet the target, recently adopted by G20 governments, of reducing the share of youth who are vulnerable by 15% by 2025. Chapter 2 considers skills use at work: are countries doing enough to assure that workers are able to make full use of their skills on the job? Chapter 3 looks at the short-term effects of structural reforms on employment and identifies successful strategies for reducing transition costs. Chapter 4 looks at how to close the labour market gender gap in emerging economies, proposing a comprehensive policy response to the problem. The Outlook’s analysis and recommendations are complemented by a statistical annex

What are the benefits from early childhood education?

Early childhood education and care programmes (ECEC) have become more accessible in recent years, with high enrolment rates in both early childhood educational development and preprimary education. The educational results of students at the age of 15 may be partially explained by attendance at pre-primary education, which sharply decreases the likelihood of low performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Pre-primary education can play a strong role in promoting equality at an early age, particularly by targeting disadvantaged groups such as first- and second-generation immigrants. Assuring and monitoring the quality of programmes is key to guaranteeing that early childhood education and care has a positive impact on both equity and performance in education

School Improvement Through Strong Leadership

According to the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), principals, on average, report frequently engaging in a number of activities that are consistent with instructional leadership. However, this is not the case in every country and large proportions of them report that their training did not include any instructional leadership training or course. Although continuous professional development could help fill those gaps, many school leaders report a number of obstacles preventing them from taking part in such learning, including a lack of support and opportunities, and personal and professional obstacles

Supporting new teachers

In many countries, less experienced teachers (those with less than five years’ teaching experience) are more likely to work in challenging schools and less likely to report confidence in their teaching abilities than more experienced teachers. Most countries have activities in place aimed at preparing teachers for work, such as induction and mentoring programmes. Approximately 44% of teachers work in schools where principals report that all new teachers have access to formal induction programmes; 76% work in schools with access to informal induction; and 22% work in schools that only have programmes for teachers new to teaching. Fewer teachers report participation in induction and mentoring programmes than principals report the existence of such programmes

Subnational variations in educational attainment and labour market outcomes

Levels of educational attainment do not only vary among countries, but also within them. In many countries, people with tertiary education – usually the most skilled people – are more highly represented in the capital region. Regional employment rates in many countries vary more widely among adults without upper secondary education than among those with upper secondary education or higher. In many countries, the percentage of young people neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET) is twice as high in some regions as in others

Are disadvantaged students given equal opportunities to learn mathematics?

Some 65% of socio-economically advantaged students reported that they know well or have often heard of the concept of quadratic function, on average across OECD countries; but only 43% of disadvantaged students so reported. On average across OECD countries, the 20% of students who are most exposed to pure mathematics tasks (equations) score, on the PISA mathematics test, the equivalent of almost two school years ahead of the 20% of students who are least exposed. Exposure to simple applied mathematics tasks is much less strongly associated with better performance. About 19% of the performance difference between socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged students can be attributed to differences in familiarity with mathematics. In Austria and Korea, more than  30% of the performance gap between these two groups of students is related to differences in familiarity with mathematics. In other words, there are clear indications that disadvantaged students systematically receive mathematics instruction of lower quality than advantaged students

PISA 2015 : resultados clave

Singapur supera en ciencias al resto de países/economías participantes. Japón, Estonia, Finlandia y Canadá son, por este orden, los cuatro países de la OCDE que mejores resultados obtienen. Cerca del 8% de los estudiantes de los países de la OCDE (y el 24% de los estudiantes de Singapur) obtienen resultados excelentes en ciencias, es decir, alcanzan los niveles 5 o 6. En estos niveles, los estudiantes poseen las habilidades y conocimientos científicos suficientes como para aplicar lo que saben de manera creativa y autónoma en muy diversas situaciones, aunque les resulten desconocidas. Cerca del 20% de los estudiantes de los países de la OCDE rinde por debajo del nivel 2, considerado el umbral básico de competencias científicos. En el nivel 2, los estudiantes pueden recurrir a contenidos y procedimientos científicos básicos que conocen para identificar una explicación apropiada, interpretar datos y reconocer la cuestión que trata un experimento simple. Todos los estudiantes deberían alcanzar el nivel 2 de competencias al concluir la educación obligatoria. En la mayoría de los países para los que se dispone de datos comparables, el rendimiento medio de los estudiantes en ciencias se ha mantenido prácticamente inalterado desde 2006. Sin embargo, los resultados medios en ciencias mejoraron entre 2006 y 2015 en Colombia, Israel, Macao (China), Portugal, Catar y Rumanía. Durante este periodo, en Macao (China), Portugal y Catar incrementó la proporción de estudiantes con resultados iguales o superiores al nivel 5, a la vez que se redujo la proporción de estudiantes con rendimientos inferiores al nivel de competencias básicas (nivel 2). • Aunque las diferencias por género en ciencias suelen ser pequeñas de media, en 33 países y economías hay un mayor porcentaje de alumnos que de alumnas con un nivel excelente. Finlandia es el único país en el que las chicas tienen más probabilidades de alcanzar un nivel excelente que los chicos. De media, en los países de la OCDE, el 25% de los chicos y el 24% de las chicas declaró querer dedicarse a una profesión relacionada con las ciencias. Pero chicos y chicas suelen pensar en trabajar en distintos ámbitos de la ciencia: con más frecuencia que los chicos, las chicas se ven como profesionales de la salud; y prácticamente en todos los países, estos aspiran a ser informáticos, científicos o ingenieros más a menudo que las chicas. Cerca del 20% de los estudiantes de los países de la OCDE no obtiene, de media, las competencias lectoras básicas. Esta proporción se ha mantenido estable desde 2009. De media, en los países de la OCDE, la diferencia en lectura a favor de las niñas disminuyó 12 puntos en la prueba PISA entre 2009 y 2015: el rendimiento de los chicos mejoró, particularmente entre aquellos con mejores resultados, mientras que el de las chicas empeoró, sobre todo entre aquellas con peores resultados. • Más de uno de cada cuatro estudiantes en Pekín-Shanghái-Jiangsu-Guangdong (China), Hong Kong (China), Singapur y China Taipéi logra un nivel excelente en matemáticas, lo que significa que pueden enfrentarse a tareas que les exijan formular situaciones complejas de manera matemática mediante representaciones simbólicas

Embedding professional development in schools for teacher success

Teachers report participating in more non-school than school embedded professional development (i.e. professional development that is grounded in teachers daily professional practices). Participation in non-school and school embedded professional development varies greatly between countries. Teachers report more positive impacts on their classroom teaching from school than non-school embedded professional development

What helps teachers feel valued and satisfied with their jobs?

Less than one in three teachers across countries participating in the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013 believes that the teaching profession is valued by society. Nevertheless, the great majority of teachers in all surveyed countries are happy with their jobs. Challenging classrooms with large proportions of students with behavioural problems and the perception that appraisals and feedback are done simply as administrative tasks are among factors that tend to lower job satisfaction. Collaboration between teachers and positive teacher-student relationships, on the other hand, are among factors that can boost teacher job satisfaction

Global competency for an inclusive world

Global Competence includes the acquisition of in-depth knowledge and understanding of global and intercultural issues; the ability to learn from and live with people from diverse backgrounds; and the attitudes and values necessary to interact respectfully with others. The driving ideas are that global trends are complex and require careful investigation, that cross-cultural engagement should balance clear communication with sensitivity to multiple perspectives and that global competence should equip young people not just to understand but to act. These objectives already feature in the curricula of many countries. But they now need further evolution, in response to changing imperatives. The greatest of these is the need to find a new concept of growth. This may not be a quantifiable concept, based solely on maximising economic gains, but a multidimensional concept that includes care for the environment and social harmony, as well as acceptable levels of security, health, and education. It will cover quantitative and qualitative indicators, including subjective well-being and quality jobs. It will ensure that the benefits of growth are fairly shared across society