handbook for the specific occupation. Each occupation has between 4 and 9 tasks, and the majority has 6 or more. The module requests that respondents rate each of the tasks according to the frequency with which they are performed ranging from 1 for “Never” to 7 for “Hourly or more often.” The SDS task module differs from O*NET in two ways. First, the SDS uses task statements from the VSCO handbook rather than from O*NET. Second, the SDS uses a different rating scale. O*NET asks a yes/no question about the relevance of an occupation and about its importance on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 “Not important” to 5 “Extremely important.” The Vietnam and Indonesia pilots found that the relevance and importance scales tended to be subjective and duplicative, and so the SDS replaces these with the question about performance.

The pilots also asked respondents to add relevant tasks that were not included in the list generated from the national occupational classification system (that is, VSCO in the case of Vietnam and Klasifikasi Baku Jabatan Indonesia 2014 (KBJI-2014) in the case of Indonesia). Given respondents’ lack of clarity and detail responding to this question, this free text option was found not to be useful either to validate task statements or generate new ones., The SDS drops this option from the instrument.

**Module II.** Module II adapts the skills component of the O*NET Worker Requirement module. For O*NET, skills are the procedures or ways of working given acquired knowledge. Skills can be acquired on the job – in the same occupation or not – or through formal or informal education. The SDS skills module asks detailed questions about 9 types of skills: reading (5 items), writing (3 items), math (4 items), social (6 items), physical (3 items), problem-solving (6 items), technical (6 items), management (4 items), and digital (13 items). The questionnaire also pilots questions related to environmental skills (4 items) and the ability to work from home (1 item). The module requests that respondents rate each of the skills according to the frequency with which they are performed ranging from 1 for “Never” to 7 for “Hourly or more often.”

The SDS skills module was redesigned after carefully reviewing O*NET and other skills measurement surveys, particularly PIAAC and STEP, and taking into consideration experience from the Vietnam and Indonesia pilots. The module also reflects issues raised in the literature about the vagueness and complexity of O*NET wording and responses (Handel 2016). **Appendix 1** provides a comparison of the O*NET and SDS skills instrument. Several important changes were made.

- <u>Additional skills. The SDS instrument includes 56 skills while O*NET includes 35. Changes</u> were made after reviewing the skills concept and the PIAAC and STEP’s skills at work modules, which collect data on 46 and 56 skills, respectively). The SDS instrument adds complexity levels (for example, 4 levels of math), removes or merges highly related skills to prioritize and reduce the number of questions (for example, active listening), and adds skills that are growing in importance due to trends reshaping the skill and task content of work (for example, digital, environmental, and care skills).

- <u>Simplified language. O*NET skills concepts may be difficult to understand and interpret for</u> workers not accustomed to thinking in terms of skills taxonomies and concepts. To avoid misinterpretations that could result in measurement error, the Vietnam and Indonesia pilots introduced plain language definitions to each skills definition. However, this substantially increased the length of the survey. Therefore, based on the PIAAC and STEP instruments, the SDS questionnaire switched from using skills definitions to specific questions on how frequently a skill is applied coupled with examples of each of the skills. For example, O*NET’s question on the importance of “Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-

6