Information, Communication and Technology(ICT) has changed every aspect of our life and ways we
produce, analyze, utilize, and share information across all industries and occupations. This study analyzed
the published data from the Survey of Adult Skills of OECD in order to find out the degree of adult ICT
skills of Koreans. OECD measured the levels of information processing skills of adults from 24 countries,
and compared the levels of the competencies across participating countries through the Programme for
International Assessment for Adult(PIAAC) survey. This study focused on the problem-solving in
technology-rich environments(PSTRE) skills among other measured competencies(i.e., literacy and
numeracy). The distributions of PSTRE levels by country, age, education and skill level are examined. In
addition, the levels of ICT utilization at home and at work are compared by country and age. The
percentage of Korean adults whose PSTRE score was higher than Level 2 was 30.4%, which was the
lower end of the chart. The degree of ICT utilization of Koreans at work was about the average of all
participating countries, while that of ICT utilization at home was the second lowest. The competencies
measured in PIAAC survey indicate not only the competitiveness of current human resources in a country
but also the potential competitiveness of the future human resources. To this end, the results provide
implications for education, life-long learning and work-place training system and related policies.