Jenkins, Andrew; (2013) Learning and the lifecourse: the acquisition of qualifications in adulthood. Working paper. CLS Cohort Studies Working paper . Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education, University of London

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Abstract

Policy makers have placed much emphasis on the importance of people continuing to obtain qualifications in adulthood in order to adapt to changing conditions in the labour market, and on the need for a highly skilled workforce if the UK is to remain a competitive economy. In this paper I analyse the extent to which people acquired qualifications in adulthood and also whether they upgraded to higher levels of qualification than they previously held, using data from the 1958 National Child Development Study. This group were last interviewed in 2008 so it is feasible to construct estimates of the extent of qualification acquisition and upgrading for this cohort through to age 50. The adult education phase of the lifecourse was defined as lasting from ages 23 to 50, and some 71 per cent of the sample obtained at least one qualification during this period, while 52.5 per cent did so in mid-life, between the ages of 33 and 50. The breakdown by gender revealed that women were more likely than men to obtain qualifications in mid-life, with 48 per cent of men and 57 per cent of women obtaining at least one qualification during this phase of the lifecourse. There was also considerable evidence of progression to higher levels of qualification in adulthood. At age 16 some 23 per cent had no qualifications at all. This proportion had fallen to less than ten per cent by age 33, and to just under six per cent by the age of 50. Those with qualifications at Level 4 and above comprised 21 per cent of the sample at the age of 23, nearly 29 per cent by age 33, and close to 37 per cent by the time the cohort members were fifty years old. On the basis of this new evidence it is argued that previous analyses by educational researchers may have been overly pessimistic about the extent to which individuals engage in accredited learning over the adult lifecourse. The implications for research and policy are discussed.

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