The Skills-First Readiness and Adoption Index is the first structured, data-driven framework that measures and tracks the readiness and adoption of Skills-First practices across countries. Co-developed by the Centre for Skills-First Practices at the Singapore University of Social Sciences – Institute for Adult Learning (SUSS-IAL) and the OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, this Index provides an actionable picture of how countries are progressing toward a skills-first future.
Overview
Covering 30 countries, the Skills-First Readiness and Adoption Index captures multiple dimensions of a country’s skills ecosystem — from employer practices and policy alignment to education and training systems, as well as individual experiences — offering a comprehensive view of the degree of skills-first readiness and adoption in different countries.
Singapore demonstrates an above average level of readiness and adoption in its effort towards a skills-first economy. In the overall Index, it ranks 12th out of 30 countries, placing it at the upper middle-tier among participating countries. This suggests that while Singapore has made tangible strides in adopting skills-first practices, the practices are not yet as mature or pervasive as those in leading economies.
Skills-First Sub-Indices & Labour Market Pressure Index
The Skills-First Index brings together three sub-indices — Skills-First Learning Ecosystem, Skills-First Talent Recognition, and Enabling Environment for Skills-First Approaches — built from 25 indicators that distil the multi-faceted concept of skills-first adoption into a single, interpretable metric. A higher score reflects greater readiness and adoption of skills-first practices.
Complementing the Skills-First Index is the Labour Market Pressure for Skills-First Approaches Index, which highlights how much a country stands to gain from strengthening its skills-first policies. A higher score signals stronger labour market pressures — and greater potential benefits from timely skills-first adoption.
Explore the sub-indexes below to understand the key dimensions and indicators that make up the Skills-First Index. You can assess Singapore’s performance relative to other participating countries. If Singapore data is not shown for a specific indicator, it means the data was unavailable and the indicator was excluded from the overall index calculation.
To learn more about how other countries performed, please visit the OECD Website. If you are interested in accessing the dataset, please contact the OECD team at [email protected].
Reports
Singapore Key Insights Report
Interested to know how Singapore performed in the Skills-First Readiness and Adoption Index? This report provides a focused analysis of Singapore’s progress and opportunities in building a skills-first future. It offers detailed insights into the country’s performance across the Index’s key dimensions, highlighting strengths, areas for improvement, and pathways to accelerate skills-first adoption.
Methodology Report
Interested to know more about how the Skills-First Readiness and Adoption Index was constructed? The Methodology Report provides a detailed explanation of how the Index was developed — including the framework design, construction process, and sources of the underlying data. It also explains why the Index was created and how it can be used to guide and assess the adoption of skills-first practices across countries
Project Team
Sri Manikantan (Ms)
Analyst, Centre for Skills-First Practices, Institute for Adult Learning
Yang Silin (Dr)
Deputy Director, Centre for Skills-First Practices, Institute for Adult Learning
Advisors
Gog Soon Joo (Dr)
Fellow, Centre for Skills-First Practices, Institute for Adult Learning
Edwin Tan (Mr)
Director, Centre for Skills-First Practices, Institute for Adult Learning
