It is in the category of using tools that current international assessments can provide empirical evidence on the salience of these key competencies for personal, social, and economic well-being. ALL can provide estimates of the demand for this type of competencies, of their economic, social and educational relevance, and of the implications of the various levels of proficiency for different life domains.

Yet, most of the efforts have been devoted to measuring cognitive skills implied by using a tool, an area for which theory provides a basis for measurement. Other psychosocial prerequisites that need to be mobilized for competent performance in a particular context such as ethical and motivational aspects have not been addressed until now. The PISA Science framework provides promising approaches in this respect.

In addition, future assessments need to address complexity, i.e. assess competencies at the level required by social and economic demands (see notion of reflectivity). For instance, better measures need to be developed on the capacity of individuals to analyze and recognize patterns, to establish analogies between experienced situations and new ones, to discriminate between relevant and irrelevant features, to think and act in a more integrated way, to evaluate actions in light of personal and social goals.

Another important dimension is criticality in terms of the relevance of the competencies to achieving desired personal, social and economic outcomes (e.g. Gilomen, 2003).

Both, complexity and criticality are dimensions that reflect critical features of key competencies.

And finally, although reading literacy and numeracy are important key competencies for young people and adults, they are obviously not sufficient for coping with the manifold demands associated with securing an overall successful life and a well-functioning society. DeSeCo's three-fold categorization offers a basis for establishing priorities about which new competencies should and could be included in future international assessments, and thus guide the systematic extension of future assessment instruments toward capturing a wider range of key competencies. Considerable research and development activities will be necessary to operationalise key competencies related to acting autonomously and interacting in socially heterogeneous groups and to develop internationally comparable measures.