Those countries that have a higher proportion of young people in higher education will have a global competitive advantage in future years according to the latest report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Education at a Glance 2010.

When presenting the new report, Andreas Schleicher of the OECD’s education directorate commented: “If you have a poorly qualified adult population and higher qualified young population, you have big growth potential. Those are the countries that are going to move forwards.” Schleicher pointed out that the countries at risk of falling behind were those where the situation has not changed for the younger generation such as Mexico, Turkey and Greece.

Canada, Korea and Japan lead the way in educating the younger generation with over 50% of 25-34 year-olds having university qualifications. The average across all countries was 34% compared to 20% of 55-64 years-olds.

The OECD’s annual report measures levels of higher education in over forty countries across the world and examines emerging trends in terms of the education of the workforce. In almost all countries 25-34 year-olds have higher tertiary attainment levels than those about to leave the work force (55-64 year-olds).

The report does warn that although some countries are experiencing growth in tertiary education, some countries are in danger of falling behind as their rates of growth in higher education are not rising as fast as others. This was particularly marked in Austria, Brazil and surprisingly Germany, which currently has 6% of the world’s university educated people.

Countries like Ireland, Japan and Korea which have high tertiary attainment levels will continue to increase their advantage, the report states.