Dynamics of adult participation in part‐time education and training: results from the British Household Panel Survey

Abstract

In this paper we analyse the dynamics of adult participation in part‐time education and training throughout the 90s and into the 2000s using data from 14 waves (1992–2005) of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). We study the volume (stocks) of participation and non‐participation and the gross flows between states. This analysis provides a longitudinal complement to existing work (e.g. NIACE & Labour Force Surveys) which is largely based on cross‐section data and as such can only report net changes in participation at different points in time. In contrast, our dataset, derived from the BHPS, allowed us to follow the same 4325 individuals over time and document the proportion who were persistent non‐participants (resistors), persistent participants and those who moved between states frequently and less frequently. Although a third of our sample (34%) remained non‐participants throughout the 14‐year observation period, it was the relatively large number that moved between states of participation and non‐participation which, when considered in the context of the cross‐sectional analysis, was more striking. By revealing this hitherto hidden turbulence we were able to identify and begin to characterise not just the participants and non‐participants but also the larger group of individuals who moved frequently, moderately and less frequently between states.

Keywords:

• lifelong learning
• adult learners
• British Household Panel Survey
• stocks and flows
• gross and net change
• persistent and non‐persistent learners

Notes

1. Full details of the BHPS methodology can be found in Buck (1990), Taylor et al. (1999) and Rose (2000).

2. BHPS items EDNEW and JBED taken together 1992–1997 and the single item TRAIN from 1998 onwards covered all respondents. But as EDNEW and JBED were both routed questions in wave 1 the data from this wave have been excluded from our analysis as taken together they did not cover all the original sample of panel members.

3. wLRWGHT, wLRWTSW2 and wLRWTUK2, see Appendix 5 of Volume A of BHPS documentation found at http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/ulsc/bhps/doc/vola/vola.php (accessed 28 October 2007).