Skills and educational systems

Abstract

How well individuals are prepared for their labor market entry and later occupational careers is highly dependent on both individuals’ skill acquisition and the skill requirements of their jobs. Both skill supply and demand are shaped by national education systems: the former because education systems structure learning opportunities, and the latter because such systems structure the pool of the available labor force (e.g., Rauscher 2015). Conversely, economic factors and associated occupational structures influence national educational systems, as partly argued by the political economy literature (e.g., Busemeyer 2015). In this chapter, we focus on how education systems shape individuals’ skills acquisition; however, such education-system “effects” are of course embedded in national variations in occupational structures, which impact the configuration of educational systems. Our understanding of the acquisition of general skills (or competences) in primary and secondary education (until the end of compulsory education) and the inequalities therein have greatly been enhanced with the expansion of international large-scale student assessments since the mid-1990s and early 2000s, such as the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Trends vary significantly between countries and over time; for example, we observe declining means of literacy proficiency in a number of European countries and a rising performance in Asian countries.