Employability is a construct that includes soft and hard skills to prepare a person to gain employment, progress in it and sustain a career. The employability discourse, in the context of linking education with skills development, has gained increased attention globally. However, engagement with this agenda differs across countries, as it depends…

The present article investigates the relationship between the degree of tracking and inequalities in reading literacy of second-generation and non-immigrant students in 28 Western countries. The article takes into account that next to between-school tracking, there are also more subtle forms of tracking, such as tracking within schools or classes.…

Purpose: This paper aims to understand the development track of skills mismatch research and discover the hidden internal connections between literature. Design/methodology/approach: The authors gathered data through scientometric quantitative analysis using CiteSpace. Specifically, this article applied basic analysis, journal cocitation analysis…

A national qualifications framework (NQF) is an instrument used to classify a country's qualifications at different levels. Each level is defined by a set of learning outcomes expected at that level. NQFs can be useful tools in education and training reforms and are vital reference points for lifelong learning and comparing qualifications across…

Australia entered the COVID-19 pandemic with a youth (15 to 24-year-old) unemployment rate of 11.6% in December 2019, three times higher than the 25 to 64-year-old unemployment rate of 3.6%. The strategies taken by governments to minimise the spread of COVID-19 have had widespread economic impacts. By July 2020, youth unemployment had risen to…

Purpose: Standards should provide a means for transparently comparing academic programmes delivered by higher education providers and the research activities they carry out. The purpose of this study is to investigate the different sets of standards related to the quality assurance of academic programmes in four countries with regard to the…

The importance of inclusive education receives global acceptance. The current paper presents a bibliometric analysis of 8398 papers dealing with inclusive education between 1980 and 2019. The research aim is to gain information on scientific productivity, international collaboration activities, and the conceptual structure of this research field.…

This country note presents the results of an analysis of Slovenia undertaken within the Labour Market Relevance and Outcomes of Higher Education Partnership Initiative project. The project was implemented by the OECD with the support of the European Commission with the aim of helping policy makers and higher education institutions enhance the…

MICROBOL -- Micro-credentials linked to the Bologna Key Commitments -- is a two-year project co-funded by Erasmus+ KA3 Support to Policy reform, and more specifically "Support to the implementation of EHEA [European Higher Education Area] reforms". It is linked to the aims of the new Erasmus+ Programme and the EHEA to increase access to…

This country note presents the results of an analysis of undertake Portugal undertaken within the Labour Market Relevance and Outcomes of Higher Education Partnership Initiative project. The project was implemented by the OECD with the support of the European Commission with the aim of helping policy makers and higher education institutions…

The digital revolution and automation are accelerating changes in the labour market and in workplace skills, changes that are further affected by fluctuations in international and regional economic cycles and employment opportunity. These factors pose a universal policy challenge for all advanced economies and governments. In the workplace, people…

Higher education is increasingly recognised as being critical to social and economic prosperity. It is also a policy area where the Commonwealth could significantly increase its impact. This could be achieved without major cost, by working through activities already in place, and persuading member governments to make stronger use of these brands…

This paper and the four commissioned works on which it is based are guided by the important question: How can we start valuing practices and outcomes of teaching and learning that are difficult to reduce to numbers? As the process of developing indicators for the Post-2015 education targets unfolds, some of the targets are at risk of being dropped…

The purpose of this paper is to review recent developments related to the development of indicators of educational progress in the context of the Post 2015 deliberations to generate a new international architecture for educational investment through to 2030. There have been a plethora of suggestions and several parallel consultation processes…

This report reviews the conceptual debates and existing data sources that relate to three ambiguous and controversial targets included in the post-2015 education framework: Relevant Learning Outcomes; Knowledge, Skills, Values, and Attitudes (for education for global citizenship and sustainable development); and Teachers and Safe, Inclusive, and…