Adolescence is a period when young people start to prepare for adult life. Teenagers have to make important decisions relevant to their working lives later on, such as what field of study or type of education they will pursue. But young people often lack sufficient knowledge about the breadth of job opportunities and careers open to them; their…

The focus of this working paper is on how secondary schools can optimise young people's preparation for adult employment at a time of extreme labour market turbulence. By reviewing academic analysis of national longitudinal datasets, it is possible to identify indicators of comparative adult success. How teenagers: (1) think about their futures in…

Purpose: This study examines the career and educational search competencies (CESC), a capability which may be necessary for a successful transition from high school to work or postsecondary education, of students from Shanghai and Hong Kong. Design/Approach/Methods: The data for this study was taken from the Main Study of PISA 2012 in Shanghai and…

Identifying the factor structure of online reading to learn is important for the development of theory, assessment, and instruction. Traditional comprehension models have been developed from, and for, offline reading. This study used online reading to determine an optimal factor structure for modeling online research and comprehension among 426…

Globalisation and rapid technological progress have increased the focus on efficient investment in high-quality skills across the European Union (EU) countries. One issue that is high on the political agenda is the persistent underachievement among youths in many European countries meaning that approximately 20 percent of Europe's 15 year olds…

Information and communication technologies revolutionise not only the speed at which information can be transmitted, but also how information is conveyed and received. Technological innovations have a profound effect on the types of skills that are demanded in today's labour markets and the types of jobs that have the greatest potential for…

How "green" are 15-year-olds? To what extent do they understand environmental issues? What are the sources of their information about the environment? Can they apply scientific principles and evidence to the world around them? This paper reports that across OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, around…

Based on the PISA data in 2003 and 2006, this paper develops a hierarchical linear model to identify multi-level explanatory variables of the divide of adolescents' self-reported digital skills. At the country-level, the study finds a generally negative relationship between the ICT penetration rate of a country and adolescents' digital skills,…

It's no surprise that, 28 years after the publication of "A Nation at Risk," school-reform efforts have generated so little effect. The nation's schools have proven, over the past century, adept at resisting change. Recent attempts to inject accountability and innovation have brought an important opportunity. No Child Left Behind helped…

The Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) is a research program that tracks young people as they move from school into further study, work and other destinations. This "User guide" has been developed for users of the LSAY data. The guide endeavours to consolidate existing technical documentation and other relevant information…

This study explores the perceptions of Finnish 15-year-olds on the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet. The data, students' written responses (N = 3112), were gathered in the context of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in the spring of 2000 as a national option. The data were analysed by close reading and…