ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the surveys of the hard and soft skills wanted by global businesses and efforts to make skills education an important part of national school curricula. It focuses on the labor market and unemployment in each country to determine the importance of a potential skills gap. Poland provides an example of how business, despite high unemployment and a large labor pool, can promote a skills-based education. The World Economic Forum supports entrepreneurial education as part of a skills-based education agenda. Undoubtedly, Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) will be used by national education policy leaders to justify a skills-based curriculum for their schools. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a major global proponent of skills-based education and is providing tests for measuring skills. OECD advocates designing a national skills strategy, funding skills instruction, and providing information to companies and the public about the importance of skills instruction.
