Determinants and Learning Effects of Adult Education-Training: a Cross-National Comparison Using PIAAC Data

Lifelong learning over the life course is becoming important in order to compete in a knowledge-based global economy. Adult education and Training (AET) are a possible strategy of adjusting the skills of the adult population to the needs of either the changing occupational structure and aging societies. Nevertheless, despite the importance of AET, empirical evidence on the topic is still scarce, particularly as regards the cross-national comparative research. In this sense, this paper aims to contribute to this field of studies by gaining a better understanding of how AET can influence the level of skills in individuals. In view of this, I use data from Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to investigate four different countries - Italy, France, UK and Sweden - the influence of individual characteristics on participation in formal and non-formal AET on one side and, on the other, the effect of both different types of AET on the skills (literacy and numeracy) of adult individuals. The results from the four countries show that participation in both types of AET, on average, increases skills levels. I also found that, for both literacy and numeracy, on average the formal AET has a smaller impact on skills compared to non-formal AET. Another important finding is how the effect of learning activities varies across skills distribution: both of them take different trajectories in each of the countries selected. In conservative and southern countries, such as Italy and France, the effect of AET tend to be a bit unequal, being more efficient for groups of people at the top of the skill distributions, whereas, in Nordic and liberal countries, such as Sweden and the UK, the differences are less marked across all distributions, suggesting a fairer effect of both types of AET.