Abstract
The availability of time is a deciding factor for participation of adults in continuing vocational education and training (CVET). In view of the importance of time for participation, the present study investigates the impact of employer offered leave of work on employees’ participation behavior in CVET. Leave of work provides a specific timeframe for CVET by enabling the use of working time as learning time. The rationale of the intention-behavior relation as theorized by the theory of planned behavior provides the theoretical framework for the study. The theory allows the integration of individual and contextual factors (e.g., the work environment) in explaining individual behavior and the underpinning decision-making process. The theory conceptualizes time as an element of behavioral control that is required to act on an intention. Behavioral control is theorized to moderate the intention-behavior relation. Two modes of behavioral control are distinguished. We use employer offered leave of work as a proxy for actual behavioral control and the degree of perceived behavioral control regarding the availability of temporal resources to participate in CVET to investigate the theorized moderating role of behavior control on the intention-behavior relation. To test the hypotheses, two waves of panel data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) are used. Aiming at causal inferences, hybrid logit models are employed. We find that a participation intention is a significant predictor of CVET participation. However, the results provide no evidence regarding the theorized moderating role of actual behavioral control in terms of an employer offered leave of work on the intention-behavior relation. Furthermore, the results provide evidence that the degree of perceived behavioral control regarding the availability of temporal resources to participate in CVET does neither moderate the intention-behavior relation nor is a proxy for actual behavioral control. Finally, we discuss possible future developments of the theory of planned behavior by integrating action-theoretical assumptions from the value-expectancy theory.
Highlights
Policymakers, and companies have continuously stressed the importance of continuing vocational education and training (CVET) for modern societies (e.g., OECD, 2013; CEDEFOP, 2015; Becker, 2019)
Following Rabe-Hesketh and Skrondal (2012), the results reveal that given a oneunit increase regarding the perceived availability of temporal resources within-individual, the estimated conditional odds for CVET participation for an individual without formulating an intention are multiplied by 0.960 and the conditional odds for an individual that formulated an intention are multiplied by 0.927 (=0.960 × 0.966)
The results provide evidence that within-individual, the degree of perceived behavioral control regarding the availability of temporal resources to participate in CVET does neither moderate the intention-behavior relation (Hypothesis 3) nor is it a proxy for actual behavioral control (ABC) (Hypothesis 4)
Summary
Policymakers, and companies have continuously stressed the importance of continuing vocational education and training (CVET) for modern societies (e.g., OECD, 2013; CEDEFOP, 2015; Becker, 2019). The most common reasons given by adults for not participating are time-related constraints resulting from work schedules and family responsibilities (e.g., Boeren, 2011; BMBF, 2017). In this regard, participants need to raise temporal resources as an element of indirect costs and monetary recourses as direct costs (Bellmann and Leber, 2019). Academia approaches time-related constraints as the main barrier in accessing educational activities, the corresponding literature is dominated by qualitative studies (e.g., Schmidt-Lauff, 2008; Denninger et al, 2020; Siegfried and Berger, 2020) and multivariate analyses based on crosssectional survey data (e.g., Boeren, 2011; BMBF, 2017). Rüter et al (2020) highlighted that causal evidence on the impact of individual time-availabilities on participation in educational activities is scarce and methodologically limited in current research
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