The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development [1] recently released its Education at a Glance 2012 report, which examines education in OECD and G20 countries [2] (where the data was available), the Christian Science Monitor reports. The key to understanding this year’s report is the 2009 – 2010 global recession: “No group or country – no matter how well-educated – is totally immune from the effects of a worldwide economic downturn,” begins the Education at a Glance 2012 report [3], which notes that young people have borne the largest burden. Nearly 16 percent of people between the ages of 15 and 29 in OECD countries in 2010 were neither employed nor in some kind of education or training program. The OECD research highlights the importance of higher education, which includes vocational schooling, during an economic downturn. People with more education were found to be able to keep or change jobs more easily; unemployment rates for those with higher education remained low during the economic crisis; and the earning gap between people with higher vs. lower levels of education grew wider during the recession…