Academic Centre
From 27 September to 1 November, six seminars took place in Riga and other regions of Latvia, focusing on the utilisation of OECD’s adult skills survey data in assessing the existing competencies of Latvia’s population and in planning human capital development policies. The seminars were organised by the Ministry of Education and Science in collaboration with the University of Latvia. Attendees had the opportunity to gain deeper insights into the implementation, design, and methodology of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), as well as tools for analysing the study's data. The seminars were led by Aija Zobena and Mareks Niklass, senior researchers and academic staff members from the University of Latvia.
As part of the State Research Programme ‘Education’ (SRP ‘Education’) project’s “Elaboration of evidence-based solutions for effective professional competence development of adults and assessment of the transfer of its results into practice in Latvia” (project No. VPP-IZM-Izglītība-2023/4-0001) research activities, there are plans to analyse data from the OECD PIAAC 2022–2023 study; therefore, researchers and doctoral students from the SRP ‘Education’ project also participated in these seminars.
At the seminar held on 27 September in Liepaja, SRP “Education” project participants were represented by two doctoral students from Ventspils University of Applied Sciences, Kate Zonberga and Zane Zonberga.
On 3 October, a seminar in Riga was attended by two key implementers of SRP “Education” project, including professor Inese Lūsēna-Ezera from the Riga Technical University Liepaja Academy and professor Una Libkovska from Ventspils University of Applied Sciences. During this seminar, representatives from the University of Latvia, the Bank of Latvia, the Central Statistical Bureau, and the Baltic Institute of Social Sciences presented in greater detail methodologies and examples for in-depth data analysis. Videos from this seminar are available on the YouTube channel of the Ministry of Education and Science.
On 18 October, Daugavpils University hosted a seminar in which professor Dzintra Iliško, a senior expert of the SRP “Education” project, participated.
The final seminar was held on 1 November in Rezekne, with Svetlana Surikova, a scientific manager of the SRP “Education” project and a senior researcher at the University of Latvia, in attendance.
These seminars provided an overview of the data collected within the OECD PIAAC study, preparing for the analysis of Latvian data. Conducted in 2022–2023, the OECD PIAAC study covers the assessment of adult competencies in Latvia and other countries. The data obtained are provisionally set to be published on 10 December this year. The data are intended for use in the planning and enhancement of education and human capital development policies at both regional and national levels, as well as for the analysis and assessment of ongoing processes in society, including in education.
