GMCS Commentary: As our industry continues
to focus on the skilled labor shortage, we also must not fail to consider the value
of partnering with our local educational and academic resources to address some
of the important skills shortages identified within this report. With the appropriate blend of academic and
vocational training, our future skilled workforce will have the ability to not
only achieve greater success in their vocational careers, but to also have real
and sustainable career advancement opportunities. These are career opportunities
that can lead them into supervision, management and even business ownership. A properly prepared, educated, trained and skilled labor force can be the stepping
stone into even greater career achievements for those that aspire for more.
A comprehensive report by Madeline J. Goodman, Anita M.
Sands, Richard J. Coley, Educational Testing Service
The views expressed in this report are those of the
authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the officers and trustees
of Educational Testing Service.
Executive Summary:
Millennials may be on track to be our most educated
generation ever, but they consistently score below many of their international
peers in literacy, numeracy, and problem solving in technology-rich
environments (PS-TRE). The results of this report help shed light on the
growing inequality of opportunity in the U.S. and the impact this has on both
skills acquisition and outcomes for both current and future generations.
In an effort to develop a clearer picture of the
distribution of skills demanded by modern societies, the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) undertook the Programme for the
International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), a new survey of adult
skills. Unlike school-based surveys, which focus on specific ages or grades of
in-school students, PIAAC was designed as a household study of nationally
representative samples of adults age 16 to 65.1 This report disaggregates the
PIAAC data for millennials—the cohort born after 1980. Key findings are
summarized below and detailed supporting data can be found in the full report.
All differences noted are statistically significant.
How do the average scores of U.S. millennials compare
with those in other participating countries?
·
In literacy, U.S. millennials scored lower than
15 of the 22 participating countries. Only millennials in Spain and Italy had
lower scores.
·
In numeracy, U.S. millennials ranked last, along
with Italy and Spain.
·
In PS-TRE, U.S. millennials also ranked last,
along with the Slovak Republic, Ireland, and Poland.
·
The youngest segment of the U.S. millennial
cohort (16- to 24-year-olds), who could be in the labor force for the next 50
years, ranked last in numeracy along with Italy and among the bottom countries
in PS-TRE. In literacy, they scored higher than their peers in Italy and Spain.
How do U.S. top-performing and lower-performing
millennials compare to their international peers? What is the degree of
inequality in the score distribution?2
·
Top-scoring U.S. millennials (those at the 90th
percentile) scored lower than top-scoring millennials in 15 of the 22
participating countries, and only scored higher than their peers in Spain.
·
Low-scoring U.S. millennials (those at the 10th
percentile) ranked last along with Italy and England/Northern Ireland and
scored lower than millennials in 19 participating countries.
·
The gap in scores (139 points) between U.S.
millennials at the 90th and 10th percentiles was higher than the gap in 14 of
the participating countries and was not significantly different than the gap in
the remaining countries, signaling a high degree of inequality in the
distribution of scores.
How do millennials with different levels of
educational attainment perform over time and in relation to their peers
internationally?
·
Although a greater percentage of young adults in
the U.S. are attaining higher levels of education since 2003, the numeracy
scores of U.S. millennials whose highest level of education is high school
and above high school have declined.
·
Since 2003, the percentages of U.S. millennials
scoring below level 3 in numeracy (the minimum standard) increased at all
levels of educational attainment.
·
U.S. millennials with a four-year bachelor’s
degree scored higher in numeracy than their counterparts in only two countries:
Poland and Spain.
·
The scores of U.S. millennials whose highest
level of educational attainment was either less than high school or high
school were lower than those of their counterparts in almost every other
participating country.
·
Our best-educated millennials—those with a
master’s or research degree—only scored higher than their peers in Ireland,
Poland, and Spain.
What impact do demographic characteristics have on the
performance of U.S. millennials?
·
Among all countries, there was a strong
relationship between parental levels of educational attainment and skills;
across all levels of parental educational attainment, there was no country
where millennials scored lower than those in the United States.
·
The gap in scores between U.S. millennials with
the highest level of parental educational attainment and those with the lowest
was among the largest of the participating countries.
·
In most countries, native-born millennials
scored higher than foreign-born millennials; however, native-born U.S.
millennials did not perform higher than their peers in any other country.
These results should be considered against a backdrop of
larger social, economic, technological, and political forces that are shaping
our society. In addition, the PIAAC data suggest that simply providing more
education may not hold all the answers. If, despite investments and reforms in
K-12 education over the past decades, America continues to lose ground in terms
of the developed skills of its adult population and workforce, then we need to
better appreciate the ways in which education can perpetuate inequalities of
opportunity at all educational levels, as well as help redress this problem. As
a country, we need to confront not only how we can compete in a global economy,
but also what kind of future we can construct when a sizable segment of our
future workforce is not equipped with the skills necessary for higher-level
employment and meaningful participation in our democratic institutions.
Read the full report online by going here…
Copies can be downloaded here: America's Skills Challenge: Millenials and the Future
Source: ETS
No comments:
Post a Comment