What outcomes can one expect from longer instructional hours in schools? Conventional wisdom prescribes a positive correlation between instructional hours, skills proficiency and workforce employability. Hence more instructional hours should result in greater skills proficiency and performance, which in turn produces more employable individuals to meet workforce demands.

According to the Education Commission of the States (ECS), the four U.S. states that enrol a significantly large student population – New York, Texas, Massachusetts and Florida – require over 900 instructional hours for early elementary students. This is considerably longer when compared to other high performing countries such as Finland, where 608 hours is the requirement. At the middle school level, 35 states in the U.S. require at least 990 hours of instruction while other countries’ total hours of instruction range from 777 hours (Finland) to 868/867 hours (Japan and Korea, respectively). Though there are some differences between states, the U.S. still ranks near the top of all industrialised nations in the number of instructional hours required, standing above the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (O.E.C.D.) average of 886 hours.

Despite the longer instructional hours, O.E.C.D. reported unusual findings that the skills level of the Americans have fallen dangerously behind its peers in the O.E.C.D. countries. On the other hand, Japan, which has fewer instructional hours than U.S., is found to have a higher skills level. A striking discovery substantiates this – Japanese aged between 25 – 34 years, who have only completed high school education, easily outperform university graduates of the same age from countries like Italy and Spain.

With such findings on skills proficiency, it begs the question: If the American workforce skills are so poor, how does the U.S. economy continue to be competitive and agile? Andreas Schleicher, the O.E.C.D. Deputy Director of Education and Skills, pointed out that the U.S. is good at extracting value from their available workforce, even though those are mediocre assets. This simply means that the U.S. employers make the most frequent use of their workforce’s information-processing skills, including reading, writing, numeracy, ICT, and problem solving. So in reality, the U.S. continues to enjoy greater productivity because their workforce skills are utilised and used more intensively. Of course, we should not discount the other factors that affect this relationship, such as the employee-job match, and the nation’s economy.

On the opposite end, Japan under-utilises their workforce although it is one of the O.E.C.D. countries with the most skilled workforce. Japan has a long history of life-time employment within a single organisation. While it is less prevalent in the younger generation today, its principles remain entrenched in the workplace regulations and practices. This leads to undesirable scenarios such as challenges in hiring and firing, and the unemployed may find themselves jobless for extended periods. The result of restricted mobility in the Japanese job market may then explain the under-utilisation of workforce skills. Also, Japanese social mores keep employers from rewarding talent, especially at the junior level, with higher pay to encourage greater workforce contributions. For example, new entrants into sales positions complain that they are grossly underpaid as compared to their senior counterparts. Additionally, both Japanese culture and government policies have marginalised women in the workforce. Although Japanese women are highly educated, the female employment rate is approximately 25 percentage points lower than the rate for men, and ranks among the lowest in the developed countries. If the workforce dissatisfaction continues to grow due to these factors, Japan will observe a negative linear pattern for its economic growth.

In conclusion, it appears that the relationship among instructional hours, skills proficiency and employability or skills utilisation is atypical to our expectation. For the U.S., longer instructional hours do not equate to more excellent skills, yet employers are effective at utilising their mediocre assets to lead economic growth. For Japan, fewer instructional hours produce top performers but employers’ attitudes, government policies and society’s conventional mind set have supressed their brightest assets. The bottom line is: a nation must be aware of their workforce potential and capabilities, and ensure continuous up-skilling to be able to compete in the global economy. So, how many countries are currently holding and executing such practice?