Australia's overall performance in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) ranges from average to very good. However, three million adults, representing one-fifth of the working age population, have low literacy and/or numeracy skills. Building Skills for All in Australia describes the characteristics of the low-skilled and discusses the consequences that low skills have on economic and social development for both individuals and Australian society. The review examines the strengths of the Australian skills system, highlighting the strong basic skills found in the migrant population, widespread proficiency in use of ICT and the positive role of workplaces in skills development. The study explores, moreover, the challenges facing the skills system and what can be done to enhance basic skills through education, training or other workplace measures. One of a series of studies on low basic skills, the review presents new analyses of PIAAC data and concludes with a series of policy recommendations. These include: increasing participation of women in STEM fields, addressing underperformance of post-secondary VET students and preventing drop-out, improving pre-apprenticeships, enhancing mathematics provision within secondary education and tackling poor access to childcare facilities for young mothers.

This short country note recaps some Background on the 2014 OECD Measuring Innovation in Education report, the main Key report findings on innovation in education, the Report approach to measuring educational system innovation, along with Australia's top five organisational education innovations for the 2003-2011 period and Australia's top five pedagogic education innovations for the same interval.

This policy profile on education in Australia is part of the Education Policy Outlook series, which present comparative analysis of education policies and reforms across OECD countries. Building on the substantial comparative and sectorial policy knowledge base available within the OECD, it develops a comparative outlook on education policy by providing: a) analysis of individual countries' educational context, challenges and policies (education policy profiles) and of international trends and b) comparative insight on policies and reforms on selected topics.

This case study describes the policy-making process in Australia leading to the public release of information on every school in Australia through the My School website. Policy lessons are described to provide insight for OECD member countries which may be grappling with similar issues in developing school accountability systems, particularly those working within federal-state contexts. While some of the lessons from this policy development and implementation process relate specifically to Australia's circumstances, there are general policy prescriptions of broader interest to other countries seeking to improve school education through measurement and reporting of key factors of school operations and performance.

This book provides, for Australia, an independent analysis of major issues facing its educational evaluation and assessment framework, current policy initiatives, and possible future approaches. It shows how student assessment, teacher appraisal, school evaluation and system evaluation can bring about real gains in performance across Australia's school system.

The introductory section of this report provides a brief overview of the Australian VET system followed by a short description of the three case studies selected for the study. As these form the main focus of the report they are described and discussed in more depth in later sections. The three cases were selected by Australian officials, in collaboration with the OECD/CERI Secretariat. The three case studies are: a) research and statistics in VET with a focus on the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER); b) raising the status of VET; and c) the Australian Flexible Learning Framework.

Learning for Jobs is an OECD study of vocational education and training designed to help countries make their VET systems more responsive to labour market needs. It expands the evidence base, identifies a set of policy options and develop tools to appraise VET policy initiatives. The Australian VET system has many strengths including strong engagement of employers, a well established national qualification system, extensive VET data and research. The system is flexible and allows for a fair degree of local autonomy and experimentation. But at the same time there are a number of challenges, including a lack of clarity and potentially duplication in the respective roles of Commonwealth, states and territories in planning and delivering VET, a lack of clear and simple rules for entitlement to funding, difficulties in providing a reliable foundation in skills forecasts, some gaps in the data base, somewhat complicated and cumbersome training packages and an ageing teacher and trainer workforce.

The report provides an overview of school leadership developments and issues in Australia, as a contribution to the OECD's Improving School Leadership Activity. It discusses the national context of schooling, the features of the school system, school governance and leardership, the attractiveness of school leaders' roles, and professional learning of school leaders in the country.

In this report we provide a snapshot of how Australia goes about addressing the training and assessment needs of adults with low basic skills. We identify key challenges for adult basic education, and report on national,state and territory government language, literacy and numeracy initiatives (including government-funded training programmes and projects). We then provide an account of the nature of vocational and community-based training provision, and assessment policies and processes. Following this, we discuss formative assessment and innovative teaching practices, and materials and resources designed to provide assessment guidance. We also provide a description of the nature of the adult language and literacy workforce and opportunities for professional development. We end by drawing some conclusions.

For this case study, two secondary schools were identified where implementation of the first two KLA syllabuses (Science; Health and Physical Education) was progressing and where there was commitment to the principles underlying the syllabuses. One government and one non-government school were invited to participate and agreed to do so. The non-government school is one of the schools of the Brisbane Catholic Education Office, a part of the Brisbane Diocese. It was expected that these case studies would reveal both a degree of sophistication by teachers in managing school-based assessment and in using classroom assessment formatively due to the within-school effects of the school-based processes adopted for the Senior certificate in years 11-12. But, it was also expected that they would reveal some difficulties in implementing new syllabuses for years 8-10 where assessment is focussed on providing for each student a detailed profile of ‘milestones reached along a learning journey' (level or stage) rather than an overall summary of the ‘relative quality of achievement on course completion' (grade or rating).

Responsibility for attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers in the federation of Australia is widely distributed. Besides separate government school systems in each of the six States and two Territories, a diverse and growing non-government school sector comprising several Catholic and independent education systems and individual schools enrols close to one third of all school-age students. While the Commonwealth government does not itself operate a school system, it provides substantial financial support to both government and non-government schools, together with a wide array of national programmes. Initial and post-graduate teacher education is largely the responsibility of the 43 higher education institutions, including the 38 universities, that receive Commonwealth operating grants.

This review covers children from birth to compulsory school age and includes the transition period into primary schooling. In order to examine thoroughly what children experience in the first years of life, the review has adopted a broad, holistic approach to study early childhood policy and provision. To that end, consideration has been given to the roles of families, communities and other environmental influences on children's early learning and development. Particular emphasis has been laid on aspects concerning quality, access and equity, with an emphasis on policy development in the following areas: regulations; staffing; programme content and implementation; family engagement and support; funding and financing.

The thematic review places young people's transition to work within a lifelong learning framework. The transition from initial education to work is only one of many transitions that young people will need to make throughout their lives. It is of critical importance, though, since the process by which young people move from education to work can influence the extent to which the benefits of education are retained, and opportunities for new learning are opened up. From this perspective, improving the transition to work means more than getting young people into jobs -- it also requires helping them to become effective learners throughout their adult lives.

As in many other OECD Member countries, Australian tertiary education has in recent years experienced substantial growth and rapid change. It is well on the way to becoming a mass system, with access and participation at some stage of the life cycle beyond adolescence a common expectation. Whether this takes the form of direct entry following completion of secondary schooling or, as is now so often the case, a return to study after employment or bringing up a family -- or both -- higher education is no longer the preserve of a small minority.