Education improves the well-being of both young and old

a news release from ONS (Office for National Statistics)

People of all ages benefit from learning, and the gaining of new skills substantially contributes to National Well-being, according to a report published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Whether the learner is in school or an apprentice or employee looking to gain vocational skills to further their careers, or an older person wanting to remain physically and mentally active by taking part in adult education classes or taking up a new hobby, learning builds up self confidence and increases self-esteem.

Today ONS publishes an article on Education and skills, as part of its long-term programme on the measurement of National Well-being. This project links a whole range of statistics, including crime, health, education, the environment and other events affecting the lives of the nation, with the accumulation of grass-roots opinion, in order to help people understand and monitor national well-being.

By linking subjective measures – listening to people – with in-depth and substantial analysis, then evidence can be supplied to help develop the policies of local and national government to improve the lives of all people in the United Kingdom.

The article on Education and skills gives evidence-based material which can help develop these policies including:

1. Children who live in relatively poor households have lower levels of outcome from their education
2. There was a decrease of 3.3 per cent between 2009/10 and 2010/11 in the number of first-year enrolments in UK higher education institutes, almost entirely caused by the fall in numbers of part-time students
3. In 2011 employers reported that about 1.5 million employees had skills gaps.

On the positive side, between 1993 and 2011 the proportion of adults aged 16 to 64 without any formal education qualifications has more than halved from 27 per cent to 11 per cent, and the proportion with a degree or equivalent has more than doubled from 11 per cent to 24 per cent.

The article also shows that those with no formal educational qualifications report a lower level of satisfaction with life.

The ONS Measuring National Well-being project is aimed at producing research and analysis which can provide the evidence to produce policies to help these groups have a better quality of life.

Read the full article on Education and skills (PDF 36pp)

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Taking stock of education and skills: the youth perspective

via OECD’s educationtoday

With his vantage point at the helm of the largest youth platform in the world, European Youth Forum (YFJ) President Peter Matjašic is well placed to assess the state of education and skills across Europe. Indeed, the YFJ represents millions of young people by way of national councils from Iceland to Azerbaijan, lobbying such important international bodies as the European Union, the Council of Europe and the United Nations to adopt policies that are in the best interests of European youth.

Educationtoday met with him at the OECD Forum to get his views on the state of young people’s education and skills across the continent today.

You can read the interview here where you will also find links to other sites of interest.

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How's life? Measuring well-being (Chapter 7 - Education and skills)

via OECD’s Directorate for Education

This chapter [of the How”s Life? publication] considers a few well established educational indicators that provide a basic picture of both the current educational status of the adult population and selected skills of youth, skills needed to undertake the broad range of activities essential to life in modern society. It finds that while education has increased substantially over the past few decades, with countries converging towards a similar level of educational attainment, strong disparities remain in the quality of educational outcomes.

How's Life? is part of the OECD Better Life Initiative, launched by the Organisation on the occasion of its 50th Anniversary. The OECD Better Life Initiative aims to promote “Better Policies for Better Lives”, in line with the OECD’s overarching mission. One of the other pillars of the OECD Better Life Initiative is the Your Better Life Index (www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org), an interactive composite index of well-being that aims at involving citizens in the debate on societal progress.

Readers can access the full version of How's Life? Measuring well-being by choosing from the following options:

• Subscribers and readers at subscribing institutions can access the online database at http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264121164-en
• Non-subscribers can purchase the PDF e-book and/or paper copy via OECD Online Bookshop at www.oecd.org/bookshop?9789264121164 [Connection not available as at 16/10/2011]
• Government officials can access the PDF e-book via OLISnet

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