Finland emerges as the new global leader in providing future-skills education for youth, according to the Worldwide Educating for the Future Index (WEFFI)

LONDON, UK – Media OutReach – 7 March 2019 – 

• Finland’s
  strong policy, teaching and socio-economic environments propel it to top of 50
  economies in the second edition of the Worldwide Educating for the Future Index
  (WEFFI), produced by The Economist Intelligence Unit and commissioned by the
  Yidan Prize Foundation
• Switzerland
  and New Zealand follow closely behind, the latter having taken the top spot in
  2017’s inaugural ranking
• The UK ranks tenth,
  down four spots from its 2017 ranking, hurt by low scores on quality of teacher
  education and government expenditure on education

The Worldwide Educating for
the Future Index (WEFFI) 2018: Top ten economies

Future-focused approaches to education must move beyond
rigid, exam-based methods and encompass problem-based learning, innovative
teaching methods and broader themes of global citizenship. Progress on
transforming the world’s education systems to meet these goals is uneven,
according to a new report released today by The Economist Intelligence Unit
(EIU).

Themed “Building tomorrow’s global
citizens“, the white paper is commissioned by the Yidan Prize
Foundation and based on the findings of the second annual Worldwide Educating for
the Future Index. With a focus on young people aged 15-24 in 50 economies, it
measures three pillars of education systems–policy approaches, teaching
conditions and broader gauges of societal freedom and openness–as a means of
readying young people to meet the challenges of work and society in future.

Michael Gold, editor of the report, said, “The second edition
of the index shows that while education systems are starting to recognise the
importance of holistic approaches to learning, many gaps still exist. Economies
around the world must strengthen assessment frameworks, regularise reviews of
curriculums and improve teaching conditions. Perhaps most importantly, the
recent retrenchment away from globalisation by many economies may threaten
students’ abilities to develop an inquisitive mind-set and tackle the big
problems of tomorrow.”

The full report and
economy snapshots of Finland, Ghana, the US and Vietnam can be downloaded here.