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The goal of this Diploma thesis is to provide the basic overview of current economic aspects of education of the Czech Republic. At the same time this Diploma thesis mapped out the basic concept of labor as a factor of production, or more precisely human capital (T. W Schultz, G. S Becker) and their application in the sector of education. The educational system in the Czech Republic will be assessed on the basis of a criterion that handles the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The methods used for this purpose are qualified heuristics, comparison and analysis, because some of the data and the results should be confronted with other results that are processed by some representative international and national statistical research organizations (CSO, Eurostat, CCERGE-EI). This Diploma thesis includes only selected economic aspects of education. The theoretical part introduces human capital, its conception by W. T. Schultz and G. S. Becker, his measurements and the importance of education for czech society. The theoretical part defines the main economic aspects of education and PISA and PIAAC Survey. The practical part is devoted to the results of selected indicators and PISA and PIAAC Survey.

Ett av de viktigaste ämnena inom sociologin är frågan om social stratifiering. En viktig aspekt inom forskningen om social stratifiering är att undersöka hur kunskap ”fördelas” mellan olika grupper i samhället. Mycket av den tidigare forskningen inom detta ämne har undersökt skillnader i utbildningsnivå mellan olika grupper. År 2012 genomförde emellertid OECD en stor kunskapsundersökning (PIAAC) i en rad industrialiserade länder. PIAAC-undersökningen mäter vuxnas läsfärdighet, räknefärdighet och problemlösningsförmåga och möjliggör en djupare analys av de faktiska kunskaperna hos vuxna människor i olika länder. Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka sambandet mellan yrkesklass och läs- och räknefärdigheter i Sverige och Tyskland. Uppsatsen undersöker dels om det finns några tydliga skillnader i färdigheter mellan människor som arbetar i olika yrkesklasser, dels om dessa skillnader ser olika i ut Sverige och Tyskland. Uppsatsen bygger på kvantitativa data; det datamaterial som har använts kommer från OECD:s internationella undersökning av vuxnas färdigheter (PIAAC) från år 2012. Uppsatsen begränsar sig till att undersöka läs- och räknefärdigheter hos personer som befann sig i arbete när PIAAC-undersökningen genomfördes. Resultaten visar bland annat att det finns tydliga skillnader i färdigheter mellan olika yrkesklasser. Dessa skillnader är dock inte lika stora i Sverige som de är i Tyskland. Sverige har signifikant högre läs- och räknefärdigheter än Tyskland i många yrkesklasser. Uppsatsen föreslår att en bidragande orsak till detta är de olika utformade utbildningssystem som Sverige och Tyskland har, där det svenska har ett större fokus på generella kunskaper och det tyska ett större fokus på yrkesspecifika kunskaper.

Denna uppsats undersöker om det finns någon skillnad i kognitiva förmågor mellan kvinnor och män samt hur dessa förmågor värderas på arbetsmarknaden. Frågeställningen som ska besvaras är hur kognitiv förmåga påverkarsannolikhetenattvarasysselsatt,arbetslösocheji arbetskraften för kvinnor och män i Sverige respektive Tyskland. Metoden som används är multipel linjär regression med heteroskedastiska standardfel. För att se hur stor del av skillnaderna i sysselsättning som kan förklaras av att kvinnor och män har olika kognitiva förmågor används Blinder-Oaxaca dekomponering. Resultaten för Sverige visar att läs- och skrivkunnighet är viktigast för kvinnor medan räknefärdighet äravstörstbetydelseförmän.ITysklandärräknefärdighetviktigastförbägge könen. Gemensamt för länderna är att män har större sannolikhet att vara sysselsatta medan kvinnor oftare befinner sig utanför arbetskraften. Vad det gäller arbetslösheten är det ingen signifikant skillnad mellan könen i något av länderna. Blinder-Oaxaca dekomponeringen visar att det i båda länderna finns en skillnad i sysselsättning mellan könen som inte kan förklaras av olika förmåga.

The diploma thesis deals with the formulation of the concept of education, examines the development of education in the time between the years 1998-2012 in the context of international research on adult skills (PIAAC and SIALS). The work includes analysis of the dependence of unemployment of graduates without school-leaving certificate (maturita) on the number of university graduates. Furthermore, this thesis provides a number of recommendations to improve the educational system of the Czech Republic in the direction of higher education of its participants and better employability of secondary school graduates on the Czech labor market.

Do men and women receive different pay-offs, in terms of wage, from cognitive skills in the Swedish labor market? To answer this, the classical Mincer equation is expanded with a variable for cognitive skills (literacy and numeracy) and an interaction term between being a male and cognitive skills to be able to distinguish the actual difference in pay-off. I use data from OECD’s PIAAC survey of adult skills, which provides a unique opportunity to examine gender pay-off differences concerning cognitive skills. The results show that men have a larger pay-off than women once occupation is sufficiently controlled for

Thesis advisor: Henry I. Braun / Sponsored by OECD, PIAAC represents the first attempt to assess adult problem solving in technology-rich environments (PS-TRE) on an international scale that is comparable cross-culturally and cross-nationally. The objectives of this study are to study (1) the distributions of PS-TRE proficiency scores across 14 selected countries and (2) within each country, the associations between PS-TRE proficiency scores and the different formats of adult education and training (AET) participation. Using data on full-time professionals (at least 25 years old) from these countries, propensity score weighting was applied to estimate the associations between the different formats of AET participation and their PS-TRE proficiency scores. To place these estimates in context, parallel analyses were conducted – one with the sample of full-time associates in the 14 selected countries and the other with full-time professionals’ Literacy and Numeracy proficiency scores as measured by PIAAC. The results showed that after controlling for socio-demographic background, occupational categories, use of key information-processing skills (both at home and at work), as well as use of generic workplace skills, no consistent pattern was found across the 14 selected countries. At the individual country level, scattered significant relationships were identified. For example, in Denmark, both formats of AET participation (vs. None) are significantly and positively associated with full-time professionals’ PS-TRE proficiency scores and their probability of scoring in the top quartile of the PS-TRE distribution (p < .01). While in the United States, Formal AET (vs. None) is significantly and positively associated with full-time associates’ PS-TRE proficiency scores and their probability of scoring in the top quartile of the PS-TRE distribution (p < .01). The variations in relationships between the different formats of AET participation and working adults’ skills proficiency across domains and samples indicate the necessity of conducting qualitative research on AET programs in individual countries. Furthermore, to provide recommendations tailored to the specific needs of each country, a fine-grained classification of AET programs based on the OECD guideline was suggested. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

This paper treats changes of the literacy concept. It presents five most important conceptual frameworks, such as literacy rate, functional literacy, Freirean framework, New literacy studies and literacies of information. Literacy can be defined as the ability to read and write, as a set of basic skills or as competencies. Because of OECD's influence, the functional literacy concept is the most powerful one. Literacy involves a continuum and is oriented mostly towards economical outputs. Influence of OECD is supported by the international surveys IALS, ALL, PIAAC, PISA and LAMP. The surveys TIMSS and PIRLS organized by IEA are influential as well. This paper summarizes the most important critical reviews to the OECD's methodology and to the interpretation of the results. It also comments current activities of OECD, UNESCO and European union. Based on the socio- cultural framework, it brings in several recommendations how states and organizations could approach literacy and its assessment. The paper relies on the documents of UNESCO, OECD, IEA, the World Bank, the European union and on the published works of foreign and local experts.