The determinants of lifelong learning incidence across European countries (evidence from EU-SILC dataset)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the potential of EU-SILC data to deepen our understanding of the determinants of workers’ formal lifelong learning (LLL) incidence in Europe. To this purpose, a twofold procedure is adopted here: first, LLL incidence is estimated for the total number of men and women taken separately, regardless of their country of residence; second, the information on the country where they live is taken into account and 21 country-specific equations are computed. Again, this is made for both sexes. This procedure allows us to shed light on cross-country gender differences. In the whole sample, our results show that for both men and women formal LLL incidence is significantly higher among young, better-educated, part-time and temporary workers, and lower among those who changed their job in the preceding year, are employed in small firms and have low-skilled occupations. When the above-mentioned separate equations are estimated for each country and for both sexes, relevant results emerge in the case of Scandinavian countries. Those results seem to be consistent with the implementation of the well-known “flexicurity” policy.