The Skills Imperative 2035: Investigating cross-country differences in young people’s skill development and identifying factors associated with high-performance

Megan Lucas, Luke Bocock, Dr Juan Manuel del Pozo Segura and Jude Hillary

03 April 2025

“International comparisons: Investigating cross-country differences in young people’s skill development and identifying factors associated with high-performance” is the seventh working paper to be published by The Skills Imperative 2035 programme, a five-year programme funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

It investigates cross-country differences in young people’s cognitive, socio-emotional and self-management skills and identifies education system factors that are associated with ‘high-performing’ countries. It includes analysis of data from international large-scale assessments, as well as a review of existing cross-country comparative studies and case studies of seven high-performing countries.

Working Paper 7 is available alongside a Summary Report - “International comparisons: Implications for England of research on high-performing education systems” - which explores the implications of our research for policy makers in England.

These reports are motivated by the hypothesis that young people’s cognitive, socio-emotional and self-management skills are closely related to their ‘Essential Employment Skills’ (EES) in early adulthood. EES are a set of skills clearly identified in previous research for The Skills Imperative 2035 as especially vital for the future labour market.

Key Findings

  • Young people in England typically have worse socio-emotional skills at the end of lower secondary school (age 15/16) than the OECD average, and inequalities in these skills are also greater in England than any other country in our dataset of 31 countries.
  • Young people in the UK/England typically have better maths, reading and science skills than the OECD average, but inequalities in these skills are marginally greater in the UK/ England and they have not narrowed over the past decade.
  • Whilst numeracy and literacy skill development in England, between the ages of 15/16 and early 20s, used to be worse than the average across countries participating in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), this appears to have improved considerably over the past 10-15 years and is now above average.

Read the full reports

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