On 24th February 2025, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) held a public webinar looking at what we can learn from the PIAAC adult skills survey to inform post-16 policy in England. This event was held in partnership with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and The Royal Society.
** Please watch the webinar here**
The OECD’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) aims to measure the skills needed by adults to participate in society and for economies to prosper. In December 2024, the OECD released the latest results, which assessed skills in literacy, numeracy and adaptive problem solving in 16–65-year-olds across 31 countries and economies.
This marked a significant update to our understanding of post-16 skills as the survey takes place every 10 years. The data paints a mixed picture for England: while there are many positives, including significantly above OECD average scores in literacy and numeracy, at the same time the survey reveals that a fifth of adults achieved at PIAAC Level 1 or below in numeracy, meaning that they struggle to complete mathematical tasks with distracting information or carry out multi-step mathematical processes. Moreover, the survey highlights significant disadvantage gaps: low proficiency across all three skills is associated with personal characteristics including low personal and parental levels of education, belonging to particular ethnic groups, being born outside the UK and not having computer experience in everyday life.
While the survey looks across the lifespan, this webinar focused on findings concerning younger people (16–24-year-olds) and their implications for policy. At the top level, there have been significant improvements in literacy and numeracy scores for this cohort since the last survey in 2012 and the distribution of skills in England by age is no longer an international outlier.
Since the last survey, there has been considerable policy focus on raising standards in these key skills in school education, such as compulsory education to 18 and making mathematics and English a requirement of post-16 courses for those who did not attain level 2 qualifications in English and Maths at 16. This begs the question: how can we use the latest PIAAC findings to inform education policy moving forwards?
The event opened with remarks from Professor Dame Athene Donald DBE FRS (Fellow, Royal Society), followed by a presentation of the findings and their impact by Andreas Schleicher (Director for Education and Skills, OECD). We were then delighted to welcome Anna Dawe, Principal and CEO of Wigan & Leigh College, and David Robinson, Director for Post-16 and Skills, to the panel. EPI’s CEO, Natalie Perera, chaired the event.
** Please watch the webinar here**
