Hungría

Skill requirements in the labour market have significantly changed over the past two decades. The restructuring of the economy is making the labour market increasingly knowledge-based. The education system has reacted to this structural change, but as the pace has been relatively slow, many graduates remain without adequate skills and insufficiently prepared to apply knowledge in unfamiliar settings. Moreover, strong selectivity early in the education system reinforces student’s socio‑economic background, leading to an excess of low skilled workers with poor labour market prospects. This contributes to persistently low employment rates and low productivity gains, slowing down the income convergence process. The education system needs to improve learning outcomes by better aligning student qualifications with labour market needs. Improving overall educational outcomes would also make the education system more equitable and inclusive. Bolstering the supply of skills requires lifelong learning and improving the access to labour market to those who have left the education system without proper skills. In return, this will also increase “on‑the‑job” training, which is a key driver of acquiring competences after graduation. In addition, mobilising untapped skill resources, particular educated younger women, would raise employment, which is needed to confront the labour market problem arising from population ageing.

DOI: 10.1787/ba9ac297-en

Facing the prospects of rapid aging and demographic decline over the coming decades, Hungary needs a highly skilled workforce to help generate the productivity growth that it needs to continue fueling a convergence of its living standards with those of its West European neighbors. Skilling up Hungary’s workforce should start by equipping youth with the right cognitive and social-emotional foundation skills. International research has identified three dimensions of skills that matter for good employment outcomes and economic growth: cognitive skills, such as literacy, numeracy, creative and critical thinking, and problem-solving; social-emotional skills and behavioral traits, such as conscientiousness, grit, and openness to experience; and job- or occupation-specific technical skills, such as the ability to work as an engineer. Hungary can do significantly better in preparing its next generation with the right cognitive foundation skills.

This report focuses on cognitive skills and examines results for Hungary from the program for international student assessment (PISA), which assesses the mathematics, reading, and science competencies of 15-year-olds. This report lays out a policy agenda consisting of two parallel elements: first, improving socioeconomic conditions for children and youth in general and in school through policies targeted to the poor and disadvantaged such as welfare and employment policies for parents and education support for children. Second, promoting equity and reducing socioeconomic segregation in basic education through inclusive education policies.

This study assesses the administrative costs and the cost effectiveness of a limited number of policy intervention options for reintegration of the long term unemployed into the labour market. To this end, research was done for a sample of five European Union Member States which are perceived as being sufficiently diverse in models of service provision and institutional delivery models to allow conclusions to be drawn of relevance to the EU28 countries.