individuals need a multiplicity of skills to achieve diverse life goals these skills are general in nature and relevant for all kinds of occupations considered necessary to provide a foundation for effective and successful participation in the social and economic life of advanced economies the oecd has developed two major data instruments to assess these skills the oecd programme for international student assessment pisa assessing yearolds in literacy numeracy and science and the survey of adult skills a product of the oecd programme for the international assessment of adult competencies piaac assessing adults aged in literacy numeracy and problem solving in technologyrich environments also called informationprocessing skills they are based on recognised taxonomies in personality psychology particularly the big five factors extraversion agreeableness conscientiousness emotional stability and openness so far no comprehensive measures exist but conceptual work is being carried out to evaluate the potential of developing measurement instruments in the future oecd c