What do Australia, Finland, Lithuania, Norway, Slovenia and the United Kingdom have in common? Aside from unspectacular performances in recent Eurovision song contests (including Australia), these countries have unenviable reputations within the OECD: they are the only six spending less per student on vocational educational programmes than on upper secondary educational programmes. This was one of the many findings buried deep in the 500-page OECD Report on Education published in September 2019.

What is striking about the OECD report is that it puts the United Kingdom’s acute shortage in a global context, and this makes very unpleasant reading. Of the 32 countries analysed by the OECD, the United Kingdom has the highest ‘graduate gap’ between the number of tertiary-educated adults who studied engineering, manufacturing and construction and the share of recent graduates who have done so. We have the largest shortfall, in percentage terms, between new supply and existing demand, of any country in the OECD.

To read the report visit https://www.oecd.org/education/education-at-a-glance/