reform that extended compulsory general education in Poland by one year was shown to significantly enhance the academic performance of fifteen-year-olds (see Box 3).

# **<mark>Box 3. Extending general education improves cognitive skills in Poland</mark>**

<mark>As part of its 1999 structural reform of the education system, the Government of Poland introduced a new type of school—the “gymnasium”—to provide lower secondary education. Following the reform, Polish students would complete nine years of compulsory general education (six in primary school and three in the gymnasium) instead of the previous eight prior to entering general or vocational upper secondary education. In the course of their evaluation of Poland’s reform, Jakubowski, et al. (2010) found that delaying specialization and exposing students to general education for one additional year was shown to correspond to an average increase of one-quarter of a standard deviation in the math and reading PISA scores. Interestingly, this improvement was evident for both low and high achievers; and the improvement in the scores of likely vocational students was as high as one standard deviation.</mark> <mark>The authors suggest that delayed vocationalization improved academic performance “through increased hours of math instruction, possibly more exposure to testing, and increased motivation on the part of students and teachers.” Moreover, because PISA measures basic cognitive skills in math and reading, it follows that students who benefited from an extra year of general education in the gymnasium were acquired more of the skills that would allow them a greater degree of future flexibility in the labor market.</mark> <mark>Source: Jakubowski, et al. (2010)</mark> When introduced later in the education cycle, however, vocational education and technical training programs can serve an important role in preparing workers for the jobs of tomorrow. But in order for such programs to be relevant, they will need to be aligned with future labor market needs. At present, many vocational education systems in Eastern Europe and Central Asia are designed to impart skills that are outdated. Instead of multi-year institutions that graduate welders, carpenters and so forth (professions that can be learned on the job or in much shorter job training courses), vocational programs at the upper secondary and post-secondary level could be reoriented, for instance, to produce skilled professionals in the high-tech clean industries of tomorrow.

In addition to enhancing basic cognitive and technical/vocational skills, governments will need to improve the manner in which they assess and invest in important non-cognitive skills. Qualities such as entrepreneurship, leadership, teamwork, creativity and many others will be crucial for preparing workers to compete for jobs in new industries, but at present governments have little or no information on how these skills are distributed and whether/how these could be taught. The education systems of tomorrow, therefore, will need to be able to effectively measure non-cognitive skills and improve the policies aimed at imparting these skills to future workers<sup>27</sup> .

> 27 In two salient studies, Heckman, et al. (2006) and Heckman and Rubinstein (2001) find that in the United States non-cognitive skills are quantitatively important determinants of post-secondary educational attainment. Controlling for measured cognitive ability, they use data from the U.S General Educational Development (GED) high school equivalency testing program to show that GED recipients fail to complete high school and hence to pursue a college education because they lack in non-cognitive skills such as self-discipline and perseverance.

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