1. Mark Keese Head of Employment Analysis and Policy Division Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Better skills for more inclusive and sustainable growth Public Policy Forum, Canada and the OECD: 50 Years of Converging Interests, Ottawa, 2-3 June 2011

2. Introduction 2  Much to learn from Canada’s good performance in human resource development  But Canada faces several challenges requiring better skill utilisation and investments in new skills  Recent OECD work that may help Canada address these challenges

3. Canada has a highly educated population 3

4. And ranks highly in student achievement 4 PISA scores for reading, 2009 Source: OECD.

5. But lags behind in terms of training 5

6. Is over-qualification a problem? Unweighted average Share of tertiary graduates in non-graduate jobs* (%) * Non-graduate jobs refer to jobs not requiring a tertiary qualification. The modal qualification in each occupational group at the two-digit level is used to measure required qualifications. Source: ISSP.

7. Key challenges for Canada’s skills and employment policies 7  In context of population ageing, Canada must fully utilise its existing skills Encourage longer working-lives Strengthen opportunities for women to combine family and work responsibilities Better integrate disadvantaged youth and other vulnerable groups into the labour market  But productivity growth must also be raised  And together with the green revolution  This requires more and better investments in skills and innovation

8. What can the OECD bring to the table? 8  An employment framework to promote better labour utilisation – The OECD Jobs Strategy  The OECD Green Growth and Innovation Strategies which give policy guidance for promoting skill development for the future  Youth, education and training reviews  PISA – a new window on student performance  But will focus on:  PIAAC  Local skills strategies  OECD Skills Strategy

9. The OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) Literacy, numeracy & problem-solving skills o Direct assessment Skill formation & outcomes o Background questions on adult learning, labour- market status, earnings, health … Measures of generic skills used at work o Based on job tasks Household-based survey of population 16-65 (minimum of 5000 respondents per country) to be held in 2011-212 25 countries participating 9

10. PIAAC: a new window on adult skills New measures of problem solving skills, component literacy skills and skills used at work Tighter focus on links between skills and labour market outcomes  Determine importance of generic skills Comparable measures of both formal and less formal training and barriers to training PIAAC will extend and improve on the work of previous international surveys of adults skills by: Objective: To provide assessment of adult literacy in the information age, covering 4 broad domains of competency Problem solving in an IT context Literacy Literacy component skills Numeracy Types of skill use covered in the JRA module Direct assessment module 10

11. Local Skills Strategies “ecosystems”

12. The OECD Skills Strategy Builds on existing and new OECD work to:  Mobilise and develop comprehensive intelligence on building, maintaining and improving skills  Help countries prioritise investment of scarce resources in education  Foster peer learning (skills systems differ but many challenges are common)  Contribute to building strategic partnerships for policy implementation

13. The OECD Skills Strategy Investing in the right skills Steering and funding Using skills better

14. Conclusions 14  Canada will need to run hard to stay ahead of other countries in terms of competiveness and to promote sustainable growth  It starts from a solid basis with a highly-skilled population and other OECD countries can learn from Canada’s experience  But must respond to population ageing, globalisation, the green revolution and on-going technical change  Much of the OECD’s work on skills and employment policies should help Canada to stay at the head of the race

15. For further information: 15

16. Thank you