WorldSkills encourages industry partners to join the development OECD PISA-VET

Interested businesses, industry, and employer organisations and companies involved in developing skills training programmes are invited to submit expressions of interest to join the first international large-scale, standardised assessment of Vocational Education and Training.

There is currently limited and inconsistent comparative data on Vocational Education and Training (VET), which constrains countries in evaluating the success of their VET programmes and learning from international best practices.

Building on the Programme for International Student Assessment – which has assessed the performance of 15 year-olds in numeracy, literacy, and science since 2000 – the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in partnership with Business at OECD (BIAC) is working to close this data gap.

The PISA-VET initiative will become the first international large-scale assessment of Vocational Education and Training, with the ultimate goal of improving the quality and attractiveness of VET.

With its own extensive experience in international comparative assessment, WorldSkills is contributing to PISA-VET’s development stage alongside numerous countries, agencies, and businesses to define the targets of the assessments, the competencies to be assessed, and the methodology.

Following months of collaboration with the OECD, WorldSkills now encourages its industry partners to get involved. As partners and employers for VET, business involvement in the international VET assessment initiative would bring comprehensive benefits to the programme.

“The involvement of WorldSkills Experts, Partners, and Sponsors can provide authenticity to PISA-VET. For it to become a relevant assessment, we need to draw on the understanding of employers and experts from business and industry,” said Chris Humphries, President of WorldSkills.

“We would like to extend the OECD’s invitation to the private sector to all our Partners and Sponsors. Because they have clear expectations of VET students, they understand the skills required because of their experience training VET learners. Their contribution can ensure the validity and credibility of PISA-VET.”

Businesses, industry and employers’ organisations and companies engaged in VET are encouraged to get involved in the initiative in partnership with the OECD. Interested organisations can now submit their expressions of interest. This document outlines the terms and scope of the proposed in-depth engagement (PDF, 363KB).

Further information on the development and implementation of the International VET Assessment is available on the OECD’s PISA-VET page, or on the PISA-VET section of the WorldSkills website.