Digitalisation, Gender, and Training of Employees in the Second Half of Working Life in Germany

Abstract

Digitalisation places new demands on employees working in changing occupations. To undertake the adaptation to new requirements further training is one central strategy of updating and building new skills – especially for older employees. Digitalisation in the world of work has been shown to affect male and female employees differently. However, little is known about the interrelationship between digitalisation in occupations and training. This gap is addressed by investigating (1) the association of training participation and the extent of digitalisation in their occupations of employees in the second half of working life and (2) whether there is a gender difference in this association. In addition, these questions are investigated regarding the employee’s desire to participate in future training. Using data from the German Ageing Survey, logistic regressions are applied to control for sociodemographic, labour market and work-related characteristics of employees aged 43 to 65 in Germany. Positive associations between a change in the level of digitalisation in occupations and (the desire for) training participation are found. The more pronounced the change in the digitalisation level in occupations, the more female employees seem to be disadvantaged in training participation compared to men.