7.2. Skills in the digital era
Solid cognitive skills coupled with problem-solving skills and other competencies necessary to carry out tasks in online environments are key for individuals to prosper in the digital society, including at school and the workplace, and in learning new skills.
Students aged 15 years who are top performers in science, mathematics and reading in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) can be considered to be among the best equipped to adapt to the scale, speed and scope of digital transformations. In 2015, about 15% of 15-year-olds were top performers in OECD countries with notable cross-country differences. Their share reached 26% in Japan and Korea, but remained below 5% in Chile, Turkey and Mexico. Academic all-rounders (those who achieved Level 5 or 6 in science, reading and mathematics) have the highest level of proficiency. They can draw on and use information from multiple direct and indirect sources to solve complex problems, and can integrate knowledge from across different areas. Such exceptional skills can provide a significant advantage in a competitive, knowledge-based global economy (OECD, 2016).
Evidence from the OECD Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) enables a similar view to be drawn for adults. Individuals with a well-rounded skill set in terms of literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments can be expected to use digital tools more efficiently, to carry out more sophisticated activities online, and to better adapt to digital transformations. Countries with higher shares of top-performing students also exhibit higher shares of adults with well-rounded skills (the same is true for lower performance). This underlines the importance of formal education. Furthermore, the share of individuals lacking basic skills in Chile and Turkey is comparable to that of individuals with a well-rounded skill set in Finland, Norway and Sweden, pointing to a skills’ gap among OECD countries.
Programming skills are continuing to gain importance as a key competence for prospering in the digital society. In many countries, children are starting to learn programming at increasingly younger ages and opportunities for developing software skills at the secondary and tertiary levels have been widening in most OECD countries over recent years. In 2017, 15% of 16-24 year-olds in the EU28 undertook a programming activity in the past 12 months, compared to 6% for the entire population. This ratio has increased since 2015 in most countries.
The majority of young programmers in all countries presented are men, although the gender gap varies between countries. In 2017, women comprised 10% of 16-24 year-old software programmers in the Czech Republic and Slovenia, compared to about 38% in France, Switzerland and Spain.
In 2017, women comprised 10% of 16-24 year-old software programmers in the Czech Republic and Slovenia, compared to about 38% in France, Switzerland and Spain.
Definitions
Top performers in science, mathematics and reading are students aged 15-16 who achieved the highest level of proficiency (i.e. Levels 5 and 6) in the OECD PISA assessment.
On the basis of the OECD’s PIAAC assessment, individuals lacking basic cognitive skills score at Level 1 or below in literacy and numeracy and below Level 1 in problem solving in technology-rich environments (including those failing the ICT core assessment and those who have no computer experience). Individuals with a well-rounded cognitive skill set are those scoring at Level 3 or above in literacy and numeracy and at Level 2 or above in problem solving in technology-rich environments.
Individuals who can program relates to the self-declared ability to “write code in a programming language”, as measured by the 2017 European Community survey on ICT usage in households and by individuals.
Measurability
The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has been undertaken every three years since 2000. Students included in the assessment are between the ages of 15 years, 3 months and 16 years, 2 months. They must be enrolled in school and have completed at least six years of formal schooling, regardless of the type of institution, the programme followed, or whether the attendance is full-time or part-time. Across 72 countries and economies, over half a million students, (a sample representing the global total of 28 million 15-year-olds) took the internationally agreed two-hour test in 2015.
The OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) survey measures adult proficiency in key information-processing skills (literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments) and collects data on how adults use their skills at home, at work and in the wider community. The 2012 and 2015 waves cover 32 countries with a sample of 5 000 individuals in each country.
Source: OECD, PISA 2015 Database, December 2018.
Source: OECD (2019b). See 1.
← 1. Data refer to 2012 for all countries except Chile, Greece, Israel, New Zealand, Slovenia and Turkey (2015).
For Belgium, data refer to Flanders only.
For the United Kingdom, data refer to England only.
