Abstract
ABSTRACTThis paper examines the relationship between age and training in the 15 European Union countries (EU-15) that were member states prior to the 2004 enlargement. The analysis is carried out using European Union Labour Force Survey data. We report cross-country comparisons of the training undertaken by older people (aged 50–64) and younger people (aged 20–49). We extend previous research by adding an analysis of the training undertaken by non-workers as well as that of workers. We also consider whether training is work-related, whether it is undertaken during normal work-hours and the time spent in training. Our results show that across the EU-15 not only are older people less likely to participate in training in general but, more importantly, they are less likely to participate in work-related training. Our evidence suggests that there is considerable scope for raising the training rates of older people and particularly older people who are out of work.
Highlights
An ageing European population coupled with the recent financial crisis has increased the urgency with which governments are implementing reforms such as raising statutory pensionable ages (SPA) and retrenching early retirement benefits
Our results indicate that across the EU- are older people less likely to be involved in any kind of training, they are less likely to participate in training that is work-related or undertaken during work-hours
The analysis in this paper indicates that overall training rates in the EU- are highest in the United Kingdom (UK) and Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland and Sweden)
Summary
An ageing European population coupled with the recent financial crisis has increased the urgency with which governments are implementing reforms such as raising statutory pensionable ages (SPA) and retrenching early retirement benefits. 0.1 Younger-Older training in work hours gaps for workers The lower panel of Figure illustrates that, with the exception of France and Luxembourg, in most countries there is only a small difference between the percentage of younger and older trainees undertaking training during work-hours.
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