Equipping young people with the skills to achieve their full potential,

participate in an increasingly interconnected global economy, and ultimately

convert better jobs into better lives is a central preoccupation of policy makers
around the world. Skills empower people to meet the challenges of everyday life,
related to making decisions; solving problems; dealing with unexpected events,
such as job loss and family break-up. Beyond better outcomes for the individual,
skills also provide the vital glue for resilient communities and well-functioning
societies, by strengthening inclusiveness, tolerance, trust, ethics, responsibility,
environmental awareness, collaboration and effective democratic processes.
Over the past decade, the OECD Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA), has become the worlds premier yardstick for evaluating
the quality, equity and efficiency of school systems in providing young people
with these skills.
But the evidence base that PISA has produced goes well beyond statistical
benchmarking. By identifying the characteristics of high-performing education
systems, PISA allows governments and educators to identify effective policies
that they can then adapt to their local contexts.
This brochure highlights some of the PISA 2012 results that are especially relevant
to attain excellence in education and shows how skills can help improve personal
outcomes, reinforce the resilience of local communities, and ultimately
strengthen the social tissue of our economies.