Participation in adult education and training in countries with high and low participation rates: demand and barriers

Figures & data

Figure 1. Participation rate in adult education and training (AET) by country. The whole population and working population. European countries¹ participating in the 2013 PIAAC survey.

¹Country abbreviations: FI= Finland, DK=Denmark, NL= the Netherlands, SE= Sweden, NO= Norway, UK=United Kingdom, IE=Ireland, EE= Estonia, CZ=Czech Republic, DE=Germany, BE=Belgium, ES=Spain, PL= Poland, SK=Slovak Republic, FR= France

Table 1. Four groups of demand for AET by own educational level in European countries with high and low AET participation rate.

	No demand	Unmet demand	Partially met demand	Met demand	All
Low AET participation rate
Compulsory	16%	17%	3%	6%	11%
Upper secondary	65%	55%	35%	49%	56%
Higher education	20%	28%	62%	44%	33%
N	4487	383	989	2908	8767
High AET participation rate
Compulsory	31%	20%	7%	14%	16%
Upper secondary	46%	47%	34%	41%	41%
Higher education	23%	33%	58%	45%	43%
N	869	293	4333	7764	16713

Table 2. Logistic regression on being in the ‘partially met demand’-group. Separate analyses for countries with high and low AET participation rate.

	High participation rate		Low participation rate
	B	S.E.	B	S.E.
Gender (male = 0)	0,148	0,050	0,084	0,084
Age groups (age 25–34 = 0)
Age 35–44	0,033	0,058	−0,016	0,091
Age 45–54	−0,066	0,061	−0,270	0,095
Age 55+	−0,470	0,084	−0,640	0,144
Own educational level (HE = 0)
Compulsory	−1,110	0,089	−1,218	0,214
Upper secondary	−0,484	0,041	−0,800	0,086
Parental education (compulsory = 0)
Parent’s upper secondary	0,179	0,057	0,124	0,089
Parent’s HE	0,333	0,057	0,580	0,105
Sector (private = 0, public = 1)	0,288	0,052	0,564	0,083
Firm size (251 people or more = 0)
Size unknown	−0,074	0,100	−0,524	0,105
Firm size 1–10	−0,363	0,078	−0,660	0,123
Firm size 11–50	−0,230	0,054	−0,379	0,107
Firm size 51–250	−0,214	0,061	−0,255	0,106
Constant	−1,101	0,108	−1,976	0,167
Number of cases	16577		8532
Loglikelihood	18016.147		5459.965
Nagelkerke R^2	0,083		0,132

Figure 2. Four types of demand for AET, by country². Eight countries participating in the 2013 PIAAC survey.

²Country abbreviations: NO= Norway, DK=Denmark, FI= Finland, SE= Sweden, NL= the Netherlands, FR= France, Pl= Poland, SK=Slovak republic

Figure 3. Estimated probability of being in the ‘partially met demand’ group in European countries with high and low participation rate, by various background characteristics. Calculations based on significant coefficients in the regression in Table 2.

Table 3. Average frequency of barriers to AET participation in European countries with high and low participation rate.

	High participation rate						Low participation rate
	NO	DK	FI	SE	NL	Avg.	FR	PL	SK	Avg.
- I did not have the prerequisites	2%	2%	2%	3%	1%	2%	2%	4%	1%	2%
- Course/programme was offered at an inconvenient time/place	10%	10%	20%	12%	9%	12%	4%	14%	9%	8%
- Education/training was too expensive/I could not afford it	7%	12%	6%	9%	12%	9%	14%	21%	13%	16%
Sum Institutional barriers	19%	24%	28%	25%	22%	24%	20%	38%	23%	26%
- Lack of employer’s support	13 %	18 %	11 %	10 %	10 %	12 %	22 %	10 %	16 %	17 %
- I was too busy at work	36 %	31 %	33 %	30 %	34 %	33 %	28 %	18 %	38 %	27 %
- I did not have time because of child care or family responsibilities	12 %	5 %	9 %	13 %	11 %	10 %	6 %	12 %	7 %	8 %
- Something unexpected came up that prevented me from taking education or training	5 %	4 %	4 %	4 %	6 %	5 %	3 %	6 %	3 %	4 %
Sum Situational barriers	66 %	58 %	57 %	57 %	61 %	59 %	59 %	47 %	65 %	57 %
Other barriers	15 %	18 %	15 %	18 %	16 %	17 %	21 %	14 %	12 %	17 %
N (= 100%) [Weighted numbers]	930	1186	1101	1167	838	5222	629	411	335	1374

Table

Variable	Value	Countries with high participation rate	Countries with low participation rate
Gender	Male	54%	53%
	Female	46%	47%
Age (grouped)	Age 25–34	29%	24%
	Age 35–44	28%	28%
	Age 45–54	27%	28%
	Age 55+	16%	21%
Own educational level	Compulsory	11%	16%
	Upper secondary	56%	41%
	Higher education	33%	43%
Parent’s educational level	Compulsory	33%	40%
	Upper secondary	52%	33%
	Higher education	15%	27%
Sector	Private	73%	65%
	Public	27%	35%
Firm size	Size unknown	16%	12%
	1–10 people	21%	19%
	11–50 people	26%	29%
	51–250 people	20%	22%
	More than 250 people	16%	18%