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About the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC)
The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) is a programme of assessment and analysis of adult skills. The major product of PIAAC is the Survey of Adult Skills, an international computer-based household survey of adults aged 16-65 years. It is designed as 10-yearly cycles.
PIAAC is an initiative of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that measures the level of distribution of skills among the adult populations as well as the extent of skills use in different contexts.
- PIAAC is a research collaboration between national governments and the OECD.
- It is the most comprehensive international survey of adult skills ever undertaken.
- It assesses the level and distribution of skills in our adult population and the extent of skills use in different context.
- It aims to help governments better understand how education and training systems can nurture these skills.
The 1st Cycle of the Survey of Adult Skills was conducted over three separate rounds between 2011 and 2018 in 39 countries. During the 1st Cycle, about 245 000 adults were interviewed, representing 1.15 billion people.
For more details on the study outcome for Singapore, please refer to the media release.
The 2nd Cycle of the Survey of Adults Skills has been conducted in 31 countries and economies so far. A first round of data collection took place in 2022-2023 with results released on 10 December 2024.
For more details on the study outcome for Singapore, please refer to the media release.
Organisations Involved in PIAAC
PIAAC is managed by an international consortium of experts and organisations in different fields including education, assessment and questionnaire design, sampling design, research analyses, skills, survey operations, IT management, linguistics, etc. The PIAAC Consortium laid out specific standards and guidelines to the whole process of conducting this study to ensure the survey design and implementation processes of PIAAC yield high-quality and internationally comparable data.
In Singapore, PIAAC is implemented by the Institute for Adult Learning, with support from the Ministry of Education (MOE), and SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG).
4th PIAAC International Conference
There were several events where the PIAAC results were discussed. Organised by OECD in collaboration with IAL, this conference, using PIAAC data to address policy concerns, was held in Singapore on 21-23 November 2017.
For more details on this event, please refer to the official conference page.