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.