There is a growing concern for finding directions for future development through introducing new
growth engines, which need to be examined from social, economic, and environmental perspectives on
the macro level. In the 21st century, the world requires new types of key skills, brought about by the
development of scientific techniques, information technology, and drastic changes in policies and
demographic factors. In other words, it is necessary to improve key skills of all citizens in order to
develop basic performance in the long-term, overcoming previous knowledge and old techniques. There
have been a number of studies on these issues, which focused on human resources development in
selected developed countries and in global organizations such as the OECD. The OCED PIAAC study,
in particular, is one of the most standardized studies that examine adults’ key skills, labor markets, and
human resource development systems from a global perspective, which allows for comparison. With the
aim of understanding the current situation in key skills of Korean adults and comparing them with
those in other developed countries, this study critically examined the data and results from OECD
studies, including the PIAAC study. Based on the result, this study also suggested future directions for
human resource development, aiming to bring the new growth engine to Korea.