Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

QUALITY DECLARATION


INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT

Confidentialised Unit Record Files (CURFs) are released in accordance with the conditions specified in the Statistics Determination section of the Census and Statistics Act 1905 (CSA). This ensures that confidentiality is maintained whilst enabling micro level data to be released. More information on the confidentiality practices associated with the CURFs can be found at the About CURF Microdata page.

For information on the institutional environment of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), including the legislative obligations of the ABS, financing and governance arrangements, and mechanisms for scrutiny of ABS operations, please see ABS Institutional Environment.

RELEVANCE

Microdata from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) survey are available as a Basic CURF. The microdata provide scores from exercises completed by respondents age 15-74 years to assess their literacy, numeracy and problem solving in a technology-rich environment skills, as well as a range of demographic data and information on educational attainment and skill use at work and in everyday life.

The level of detail provided is shown in the data item lists. The data item list can be found by clicking on the Downloads tab of this product.


TIMELINESS

PIAAC was conducted throughout Australia from October 2011 to March 2012. It is the most recent survey of Adult Competencies conducted by the ABS, with the Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALLS) survey conducted in 2006 and the Survey of Aspects of Literacy (SAL) survey in 1996.


ACCURACY

The microdata contain finer levels of detail of data items than what is otherwise published in other formats, for example in Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), 2011-2012 (cat. no. 4228.0). For more information on the level of detail provided, please see the associated data item lists.

Steps to confidentialise the data made available on the CURF are taken in such a way as to maximise the usefulness of the content while maintaining the confidentiality of respondents selected in the survey. As a result it may not be possible to exactly reconcile all the statistics produced from the microdata with other published statistics. Further information about the steps taken to confidentialise the microdata is available through the following link: CURF confidentiality.


COHERENCE

Data previously released for ALLS and SAL are not directly comparable with PIAAC data due to:

changes in the interpretation of the skill levels combining the prose and document literacy scales into a single literacy scale the numeracy scores from ALLS being recalculated using a model to incorporate the results of the countries which participated in the second round of ALLS.

Remodelled scores from ALLS and SAL will be included in additional datacubes to be appended to the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), 2011-2012 (cat. no. 4228.0) later in 2013.

PIAAC expands on the previous surveys by assessing skills in the domain of 'problem solving in technology-rich environments'. This domain is a new edition to PIAAC and is not comparable to the problem solving scale derived in ALLS.

New data items in PIAAC collected information about skill use and practices at work, including:

the use of generic skills in the workplace including communication, presentation and team-working skills skill practices at work, specifically reading, writing, mathematics and ICT skill activities.

The Explanatory Notes section of Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), 2011-2012 (cat. no. 4228.0) contains more detailed information on the differences between the surveys over time, and also the comparability with other ABS surveys.

It is intended that Australian data will also be published in an international report released by the OECD in October 2013, which will compile the results of the 24 countries that participated in PIAAC. This report will also include time series data for other countries.


INTERPRETABILITY

The information within this product should be referred to when using the microdata. It contains information including Survey methodology, File structure, Using the CURF, Conditions of use and the Data item lists.

The Explanatory Notes section of Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), 2011-2012 (cat. no. 4228.0) includes information on survey objectives, survey methods and design, data quality and interpretation, output data items, information about the availability of results and comparability with previous surveys.


ACCESSIBILITY

Microdata products are available to approved users. Users wishing to access the microdata should read the How to apply for Microdata web page, before applying for access through MiCRO. Users should also familiarise themselves with information available via the Microdata web pages.

A full list of available microdata can be viewed via the List of expected and available Microdata. More detail regarding types and modes of access to CURFs can be found on the CURF Access Modes and Levels of Detail web page.

The PIAAC 2011-12 Basic CURF can be accessed on CD-ROM.

Any questions regarding access to microdata can be forwarded to microdata.access@abs.gov.au or phone (02) 6252 7714.