PARTICIPATION IN FURTHER EDUCATION OVER THE LIFE-COURSE - A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF 3 BIRTH COHORTS IN THE FEDERAL-REPUBLIC-OF-GERMANY

In this paper we address the issue of who is most likely to participat e in further training, for what reasons and at what stage of the life course. Special emphasis is given to the impact of labour-market polic ies to encourage further education and a person's individual or cohort possibilities to participate in further education. We apply a Cox pro portional hazard model to data from the West German Life History Study , separately for women and men, within and outside the firm. Younger c ohorts show not only higher proportions of participation in further ed ucation and training at early stages of the life course, they also con tinue to participate in higher numbers during later stages of the life course. General labour-force participation reduces and tenure with th e same firm increases the propensity to participate in further educati on and training. Contrary to expectations, in Germany labour-market se gmentation has been enhanced rather than reduced by further education and training policies, since in the firm-specific labour-market segmen t, i.e. skilled jobs in large firms, and in the public sector both wom en and men had a higher probability of participation. Particularly fav ourable conditions for participation in further education outside the firm prevailed during the first years of the labour promotion act (Arb eitsforderungsgesetz) between 1969 and 1974, but women did not benefit to the same extent as men. Training policies are, therefore, in need of continuous assessment based on a goal-achievement evaluation to avo id any unintended effects of such policies.