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Less-educated workers have the lowest participation rates in job-related further training across the industrialized world, but the extent of their disadvantage varies. Using data on 28 high- and middle-income countries, we assess different explanations for less-educated workers’ training disadvantage relative to intermediate-educated workers, with a focus on the role of labor market allocation (i.e. job tasks, other job features and firm characteristics). Shapley decompositions reveal a broadly similar pattern for all countries: differences in labor market allocation between less- and intermediate-educated workers are more important for explaining the training gap than differences in individual learning disposition (i.e. cognitive skills and motivation to learn). Our analysis further suggests that the training gap is related to educational and labor market institutions and that labor market allocation processes play a key role in mediating any institutional ‘effects’. Strong conclusions regarding the role of institutions are hampered by the small country-level sample, however.

The dropout rate in vocational education and training (VET) programs is high in Germany. Yet, this study shows that most instances of dropout are not permanent departures from VET. Instead, most trainees later re-enter into a new training program in a different occupation or company (a phenomenon labelled “stopout”). We use Tinto’s model of college dropout, which suggests that the importance of performance-related and integration-related risk factors differs for permanent dropouts and stopouts, and their timing. Our analyses are based on longitudinal data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), which provides measures for competencies and socioemotional (also called noncognitive) skills prior to starting VET programs, information to capture factors related to dis/satisfaction with training and longitudinal information on school-to-work transitions. To examine the relative importance of performance- and integration-related factors, we use Shapley decompositions. Our analyses reveal that performance-related risk factors (in terms of low math competence) increase the risk of permanently dropping out, and both cognitive and socioemotional skills predict occupational changes (occupational stopouts). Whether the VET program corresponds to the desired occupation is the most important integration-related factor, and a poor match increases the risk of both permanent dropout and occupational stopout. Moreover, lower satisfaction with training leads to changes in occupations or training companies. Finally, early training dissolutions are more strongly linked to integration-related problems, while later ones are more due to performance-related problems.

Recent evidence suggests that women are more likely to be selected for professorships when they apply. This female advantage may be partly due to the widely promoted gender-equality policy of having a substantial female quota in selection committees. Yet, research has rarely considered whether male and female committee members evaluate applicants for professorships differently. We address this research gap based on a large factorial survey experiment with German university professors from different disciplines. We asked these professors to rate how qualified hypothetical applicants are for full professorships and the likelihood of inviting these applicants for a job interview. We find that female applicants have an modest advantage both in their perceived qualifications and in their likelihood of being invited—with no differences between the male and female professors assessing them. Importantly, however, the female advantage in invitation does not apply to highly qualified female applicants but only to female applicants with low and mediocre perceived qualifications—again, there is no difference between male and female professors. Moreover, our analyses do not indicate a Matilda effect, that is, we do not find a co-authorship penalty for female applicants.

Vocational education enhances smooth transitions into the labour market. However, this initial advantage might vanish over the career and eventually turn into a disadvantage because the skills of vocationally trained workers become outdated faster. So far, research has examined this potential vocational trade-off by assessing labour market outcomes such as employment and income. This study uses a different approach, it directly examines how different types of skills used at work change over the career of vocationally trained workers compared to tertiary-educated workers, and how career events shape skill-use changes. With data from the German National Education Study (NEPS), we examine five skills use dimensions based on job-tasks measures: analytical, creative, managerial, interactive, and manual skills. We find that skill-use differentials between vocational and tertiary-educated workers are only small to modest. The clearest differences relate to analytical and manual skills. Looking across career stages, the observed skill-use differentials remain rather stable across career stages—thus, the vocational skill trade-off thesis is only partially supported. Occupational mobility and unemployment contribute to observable changes, whereas job-related further training does not. Our results challenge skill-based explanations of a vocational trade-off.

In light of educational expansion in Germany, school-leavers with a lower secondary school certificate or less are at risk of being left behind. In this chapter, we first compare their parental resources, cognitive skills, and non-cognitive skills to those of school-leavers with an intermediate school certificate. Second, we investigate whether these low achievers can improve their educational attainment after school by either catching up on school certificates or entering vocational training. We analyse their transitions to vocational education using “With” hier streichen sequence analyses. Using data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), we show that although low-achieving school-leavers are, on average, not as well-endowed with agentic and social resources as other groups, they are otherwise quite heterogeneous. Many have similar cognitive and non-cognitive skills to school-leavers with an intermediate school certificate who usually manage to enter vocational training. However, this potential often remains undiscovered, because considerable proportions of low achievers do not improve their school certificates and do not manage to enter vocational education—even several years after leaving school. We also show that transition patterns vary by school type, with students from special needs schools being especially disadvantaged compared to those from regular schools.

Published online: 21 March 2023 How well individuals are prepared for their labor market entry and later occupational careers is highly dependent on both individuals’ skill acquisition and the skill requirements of their jobs. Both skill supply and demand are shaped by national education systems: the former because education systems structure learning opportunities, and the latter because such systems structure the pool of the available labor force (e.g., Rauscher 2015). Conversely, economic factors and associated occupational structures influence national educational systems, as partly argued by the political economy literature (e.g., Busemeyer 2015). In this chapter, we focus on how education systems shape individuals’ skills acquisition; however, such education-system “effects” are of course embedded in national variations in occupational structures, which impact the configuration of educational systems. Our understanding of the acquisition of general skills (or competences) in primary and secondary education (until the end of compulsory education) and the inequalities therein have greatly been enhanced with the expansion of international large-scale student assessments since the mid-1990s and early 2000s, such as the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Trends vary significantly between countries and over time; for example, we observe declining means of literacy proficiency in a number of European countries and a rising performance in Asian countries.

This study examines the role of a wide range of personality characteristics—such as the Big Five personality traits, self-esteem, goal pursuit/adjustment, social behavior, and educational aspirations—for the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment in Germany, and compares their relative importance with that of cognitive skills. We use information on more than 8,000 students from the German National Educational Panel Study. We find that personality characteristics do not mediate the association between parents’ and children’s attainment of the university entrance qualification (the Abitur) by age 19/20. Only educational aspirations are a strong mediator for intergenerational educational transmission. A few personality characteristics moderate intergenerational educational transmission, and they do so in favor of children with high-educated parents either as Matthew effects or compensatory advantages. In contrast to personality characteristics, cognitive skills act as strong mediators, while moderation is rather weak when accounting for personality characteristics—but again, they work in favor of privileged children. Our German study reveals similarities but also differences compared with the mostly U.S.- and U.K.-based research and inspires to rethink the importance of personality characteristics and cognitive skills for intergenerational education attainment.

This article demonstrates the disadvantages that students leaving special needs schools ( Förderschule) face in their school-to-work transition in Germany. We analyse whether the institutional label of ‘having attended a special needs school’ – beyond and above low school attainment – results in scarring effects for students’ chances of integration into training and employment after leaving school. We focus on students classified as having learning disability ( Lernbehinderung), the largest group among students with special educational needs (SEN) and examine their NEET risk compared to equally low-attaining students from general schools at age 20/21. The analyses are based on rare longitudinal data for SEN students, the German National Educational Panel Study. Employing matching and regression techniques, we find that the label of ‘having attended a special needs school’ does generate long-term scars above and beyond low school attainment. However, this is only the case for school leavers with a lower secondary school certificate but not for those without school certificate.

Many countries have implemented youth (un)employment programmes for low-achieving young people to improve their employment prospects. In Germany, these youths are often channelled into prevocational programmes to prevent them from long-term ‘scars’ by providing a ‘second chance’ to enter apprenticeships (serving as entry into the labour market in Germany). However, the usefulness of these programmes is contested. It remains unclear whether it is (more) useful for young people to invest in education and improve formal qualifications (to send a positive ‘signal’) or to spend more time in firms (e.g. to counteract possible discrimination processes or to generate new network ties). It is also unclear who benefits most depending on previous school-leaving certificates. We address these questions by using rich data from the German National Educational Panel Study and apply entropy balancing as a matching approach to control for selection. We find that both attaining a higher school certificate and spending time in firms improve low-achieving youth’s chances to enter apprenticeships. However, only those who attained a higher-level school certificate are able to enter higher-status training occupations afterwards. Moreover, prevocational programmes are most beneficial for the most disadvantaged.

Research consistently reports pronounced earnings differences between men and women, even among the highly educated. This article investigates whether students’ responsiveness to information on income returns relates to gender differences in major choices, which might contribute to the persistent gender wage gap. We use field-experimental panel data on students in Berlin (Germany), starting one year before high school graduation. Our intervention comprised information on major-specific returns to college and was provided to students in randomly selected schools. By comparing the major-specific application decisions of “treated” and “untreated” high school seniors, we examine whether, and why, male and female students respond differently to this information. As potential mechanisms behind a gender-specific treatment effect, we analyze the role of gender stereotypes and roles associated with certain job attributes. We find that providing income information on college majors only influences the major choices of male (not female) students with college intention: treated male students on average applied to majors associated with higher mean income. Further analyses suggest that this gender difference in the treatment effect cannot be explained by differential distributions or effects of preferred job attributes.

Owing to the recent recession, the German apprenticeship model is once again praised for smoothing out school-to-work transitions. In line with the social policy shift of favouring education as a key means to combat youth unemployment, European Union (EU) recommendations and German national policies encourage young Southern and Eastern EU citizens to apply for apprenticeship training abroad. Yet, young people wanting to go abroad are not only mobile young people but also immigrants. Given the prevalence of ethnic disparities in the German apprenticeship system, the question arises whether employers would be willing to hire these newcomers. Using a factorial survey experiment, we investigate how employers rate applications from Spanish newcomers compared to those from young immigrant descendants of Spanish origin. The results indicate that newcomers are substantially less preferred than immigrant descendants born in Germany. Employers’ expectations about newcomers’ language skills and employers’ interest in training for their own skilled labour force are key barriers to policies promoting apprenticeships abroad.

Information deficits are considered an important source of why students from less-privileged families do not enroll in college, even when they are college-eligible and intend to go to college. In this paper, we examine whether correct and detailed information on the costs of and returns to higher education increases the likelihood of college applications of less-privileged high school graduates who expressed college intentions in their junior high school year. We employ an experimental design with a randomly assigned 25-minute information treatment about funding opportunities for, and returns to, higher education given at Berlin schools awarding university entrance qualifications. Our analyses show that our information treatment indeed substantially increases the likelihood of treated less-privileged students to apply to college. Our study indicates that our low-cost provision of financial information not only increased their college knowledge but also substantially changed their college application behavior, despite other existing barriers, like economic constraints.

School leavers with low educational attainment face great difficulties in their school-to-work transitions. They are, however, quite heterogeneous in terms of their personal and social resources. These within-group differences may influence who shows initiative during the school-to-work transition period and thereby helps employers recognize their learning potential at labor market entry. Yet this recognition also depends on the ways employers select applicants, which may prevent them from discovering such within-group differences. We therefore investigate the interplay between agency and its constraints, that is, whether higher cognitive and noncognitive skills and more parental resources provide low-achieving school leavers with new opportunities in the school-to-work transition period or whether their low school attainment causes the persistency of their disadvantages. We use panel data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), which started in grade 9. The NEPS also includes school leavers from special-needs schools. Our sample consists of 3417 low-achieving adolescents (42% female), defined as adolescents who leave school with no or only a lower secondary school-leaving certificate. Their average school-leaving age is 16 to 17 years. Our key findings are that the transition period opens up new opportunities only for those low-achieving adolescents with better vocational orientation and higher career aspirations, leading them to make stronger application efforts. The success of youth’s initiative varies considerably by school-leaving certificate and school type but not by competences, noncognitive characteristics, and parental background. Thus, the label of “having low qualifications” is a major obstacle in this transition period - especially for the least educated subgroup. Their poor school attainment strongly disadvantages them when accessing the required training to become economically independent and hence in their general transition to adulthood. Our results are also of interest internationally, because participation in firm-based training programs functions as the entry labor market in Germany. Thus, similar explanations may apply to low-achieving adolescents' difficulties in finding a job.

We study school-to-work-transition (STWT) patterns and early occupational attainment for five West German birth cohorts. Although these cohorts experienced very different macro conditions, their STWTs were facilitated by Germany's strong vocational education and training (VET) system. The main research question is whether linearity of STWTs differed across and within cohorts. Linearity concerns the normatively expected order of different activity statuses during this life phase. High linearity is ideal-typically defined as entering VET or tertiary education programs after leaving general education, followed by rather direct entry into employment. Non-linear patterns diverge from this ordering or may also include other status activities, like unemployment and inactivity. We use data of the Adult Starting Cohort of the German National Education Panel Study (NEPS) and employ sequence analysis and regression methods. Our analyses reveal that the proportion of young people experiencing the ideal-typical transition patterns increased over the cohorts. Yet, the degree of non-linearity (in terms of number of status activities and status shifts, and some non-employment experience) of these ideal-typical STWT patterns also increased over the cohorts. Moreover, we find strong differences between men and women in early occupational attainment. Higher-educated women in particular had higher risks of long-term disadvantage, whereas men were able to compensate for disadvantages by achieving higher educational attainment and establishing themselves more quickly in the labor market.

Stage 6 of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) 6 is devoted to the transition of young people from school to work. Stage 6 focuses in particular on the transition from school to vocational education and training and then to work (for tertiary education, see Chap. 16). In all Western societies, vocational education and training (VET) systems face a number of challenges, including the need to adapt to increasing skill requirements across the economy and to handle the danger of producing an “underclass” of low-skilled youth. This chapter presents the life-course approach for investigating school-leavers’ pathways from school into the labor market within NEPS. Several factors shape young people’s school-to-work transitions: their motivation and competence endowment, their decisions to apply for specific educational programs, the constraints they face regarding the opportunities for VET programs and the gatekeepers’ recruitment behavior, the information and support youths may or may not receive from social networks, and the learning environments they encounter in firms and schools. We outline the basic theories that guide our research concerning these influences and discuss how we take them into account within NEPS Stage 6. Thus, we provide an overview of the study’s research potential in the area of VET. For now, it is mainly the Scientific Use Files of Starting Cohort 4 (SC4) that provide ample opportunities for innovative interdisciplinary analyses—including analyses of students from special education schools. As the starting cohorts age, Starting Cohort 3 (SC3) has now also entered NEPS Stage 6 and its data on VET transitions will soon be available as well. Wie andere westliche Länder steht auch Deutschland vor zahlreichen Herausforderungen im Bereich der beruflichen Bildung. Dazu gehören der demografische Wandel, das Schritthalten mit den steigenden Qualifikationsanforderungen der Arbeitswelt sowie die Verringerung von Bildungsarmut, d.h. die Reduzierung der Zahl ausbildungsloser und schlecht ausgebildeter Jugendlicher. Etappe 6 des Nationalen Bildungspanels widmet sich diesen Themen und untersucht die Übergänge Jugendlicher von der Schule in die berufliche Bildung und in den Arbeitsmarkt. Das Kapitel stellt den zugrunde liegenden Lebensverlaufsansatz dieser Etappe des Nationalen Bildungspanels vor. In kumulativer Hinsicht werden diese Übergänge durch zahlreiche Faktoren beeinflusst: durch die Motivation und die Kompetenzausstattung der Jugendlichen, durch ihre Bildungsentscheidungen, durch die Einschränkungen, die aus dem Ausbildungsplatzangebot und dem Einstellungsverhalten von Gatekeepern resultieren, durch die Information und Unterstützung, die Jugendliche durch ihre sozialen Netzwerke erhalten oder nicht, und durch die Lernumwelten in Betrieben und Schulen. Wir skizzieren die wichtigsten Theorien, die die Wirkungsweise dieser Faktoren definieren, und diskutieren, wie sie im Rahmen der Datenerhebung von Etappe 6 berücksichtigt werden. Dies ermöglicht einen Überblick über das Potenzial der so erhobenen Längsschnittdaten für die Berufsbildungsforschung. Bisher bieten die Scientific Use Files der Startkohorte 4 (SC4) zahlreiche Möglichkeiten für innovative und interdisziplinäre Analysen – darin eingeschlossen erstmalig die Möglichkeit, für eine deutschlandweite Stichprobe die Übergänge von ehemaligen Förderschülerinnen und Förderschülern untersuchen zu können. Aufgrund des Alterns der Befragten in den NEPS-Stichproben ist mittlerweile auch die Startkohorte 3 in der Bildungsetappe 6 angekommen. Deren Daten zu beruflichen Übergängen werden in Kürze als Scientific Use Files ebenfalls verfügbar sein.

Contains fulltext : 205917.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) We use PIAAC data on the literacy and numeracy skills of 49,366 25-to-54-year-olds in 27 countries to shed new light on cross-national variation in the labor market disadvantage of less-educated adults (i.e., those who have not completed upper secondary education). Our empirical analysis focuses on the occupational status gap between less-educated adults and those with a degree at the upper secondary level and yields three main findings. First, individual-level differences in literacy and numeracy skills are an important source of cross-national variation in labor market inequalities by educational attainment, but substantial gaps in occupational status remain even after accounting for individuals' actual skills and further socio-demographics. Second, this remaining occupational status gap rises with a country's level "skills transparency" (i.e., the extent to which formal qualifications are more informative about actual skills): labor market gaps increase as the skills gap between the two educational groups increases and as the within-group distribution of skills becomes more homogeneous. Third, country differences in skills transparency seem to be the primary mediating channel for the inequality-enhancing effect of tracking in secondary education found in previous research. 20 p.

We use PIAAC data to study the relationship between parental education and educational success among adults from 23 advanced economies. We consider educational success in terms of both educational attainment (formal qualifications) and educational achievement (competencies) and in both absolute and relative terms (i.e. as the individual’s rank in the distribution of educational success). Parental education effects are stronger for educational attainment than for achievement in all countries. Cross-national variation in the strength of social background effects follows broadly similar patterns for the different ways of measuring success, but a few countries combine relatively strong achievement with relatively weak attainment effects and vice versa. Tracking in secondary education is associated with stronger background effects for educational attainment but not for achievement. Greater prevalence of formal (non-formal) AET is associated with stronger (weaker) background effects for both attainment and achievement, while vocational orientation of upper secondary education does not matter much.

Mit Daten des Nationalen Bildungspanels (NEPS) werden Handlungsressourcen und Ubergange ins Berufsbildungssystem von Jugendlichen mit maximal Hauptschulabschluss untersucht. Es zeigt sich, dass diese Jugendlichen eine benachteiligte, aber keine homogene Gruppe sind. Ein nennenswerter Teil hat kognitive und nicht-kognitive Potenziale sowie soziale Herkunftsressourcen, die sowohl fur einen hoheren Schulabschluss gereicht hatten als auch fur hohere Ausbildungschancen. Diese Potenziale bleiben allerdings weitgehend unentdeckt – mit der Folge eines hohen Risikos, langfristig bildungsarm zu bleiben.

Using PIAAC (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies) data for 21 countries, we study interrelationships between formal qualifications, cognitive skills, and labour market outcomes, focusing on comparisons between less and intermediate-educated adults (i.e. between adults with a degree below the upper secondary and at the upper secondary level). Less-educated adults tend to have lower cognitive skills than intermediate-educated adults, yet both groups are internally heterogeneous. In country-specific individual-level regressions, cognitive skills partly explain the lower occupational status of less-educated adults, but cross-national variation in their disadvantage remains substantial after accounting for skills. Country-level regressions show that the remaining disadvantage increases with the aggregate skills gap and with the internal homogeneity of the two educational groups. We further show that the association between skills and occupational attainment is weaker among the less educated than among the intermediate group. These findings are consistent with the idea that employers statistically discriminate on the basis of formal qualifications.

Employment and wage inequalities between educational groups in advanced economies have received much attention in economic and sociological research. Over the past 50 years, the labor market vulnerability of less-educated workers has increased and will most probably continue to do so unless crucial interventions take place. Foundational research has identified multiple factors that contribute to rising educational disparities in employment prospects. It has focused in particular on demand-side factors, such as skill supply–demand mismatches, changes in overall job structures, foreign trade, or institutional changes; however, most studies were based on supply-side data. Cutting edge research has challenged some of these findings by studying recruitment processes, technological changes, and skill distributions, and by using a multidimensional concept of education. Nevertheless, the relative importance of the various factors has yet to be determined. Other key issues for future research involve including women in the analysis, explaining not only differences between educational groups but also differences within the group of less-educated workers, and studying the impact of variation in competence-qualification relationships on the employment prospects of less-educated workers. Research of this nature will require more interdisciplinary cooperation between economists and sociologists and an increase in international comparative studies. Such research will enrich our understanding of how the barriers confronting less-educated workers in the labor market can be overcome or removed. Keywords: low-skilled; labor market outcomes; wage inequality; employment prospects; country comparison; education

Germany is widely known for its vocational education and training (VET) system and its dual apprenticeship system in particular. What is often overlooked, however, is the vertical stratification within the German VET system. This is the focus of this study. Our analysis shows that the VET system, like the German school system, is highly stratified, resulting in large differences in labour market opportunities. We elaborate on three dimensions of vertical stratification: VET system vs. higher education, fully qualifying vs. prevocational VET programmes and segmentation of the fully qualifying VET programmes by educational attainment and career prospects. All three stratification dimensions are closely linked to school attainment and thereby to social origin.

During recent decades, earnings differentials between educational groups have risen in most advanced economies. While these trends are well-documented, much less is known about inequality trends within educational groups. To address this issue, we study changes in labor market inequalities among low-skilled men in West Germany. Using data from the German Socio-economic Panel, we show that both risks of labor market exclusion and earnings dispersion have grown dramatically since the mid-1980s. We consider possible explanations for these trends, drawing on an analytic distinction between compositional changes with respect to worker/job characteristics and changes in the effects of these characteristics on labor market outcomes. Using a reweighting strategy and regression models, we find that both compositional trends and changes in the effects of important characteristics have contributed to the observed increase in labor market inequalities. We discuss the likely influence of German welfare state programs, labor market regulation, and of recent changes in these domains, and sketch promising avenues for future research.

This Special Issue considers education as a social policy in its own right, from a life-course perspective and in relation to other policy areas. It recognizes the complexity of education systems and their multi-stage architecture. The volume broadens our understanding of the role of ‘education as social policy’ by addressing four different aspects: the importance of education providers, education as a means of social stratification, education as an interconnected regime component and public opinion on education as an important foundation of welfare state policies and a prerequisite for their sustainability in the long run. From a theoretical perspective, all authors critically engage with the social investment state approach that sees in education and training investment the lynchpin of a pre-distribution agenda protecting individuals from the new social risks of a competitive, knowledge-driven economy. The examples provided in this Special Issue expose the multifaceted role of education as social policy, drawing attention to both its formative and stratifying function across a number of European welfare states.

Nur knapp ein Drittel der Beschaftigten hat 2011 an einer betrieblich geforderten Weiterbildung teilgenommen. Gering qualifizierte oder weibliche Beschaftigte mit Betreuungsaufgaben waren besonders selten vertreten. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersucht der vorliegende Beitrag die betrieblichen und uberbetrieblichen Rahmenbedingungen und Mechanismen, die dazu beitragen, dass auch diese unterreprasentierten Beschaftigtengruppen in die betriebliche Weiterbildung einbezogen werden. Theoretisch wird das geringe Weiterbildungsengagement von Betrieben und Beschaftigten auf Transaktionskostenprobleme zuruckgefuhrt. Ausgehend von der Transaktionskostentheorie und dem Konzept der sozialen Einbettung werden unterschiedliche Rahmenbedingungen und Mechanismen identifiziert, die direkt oder indirekt zur Uberwindung dieser Probleme beitragen. Die Auswertung von vier Fallstudien in Betrieben mit einer hohen Weiterbildungsbeteiligung zeigen, dass starke Solidaritatsnormen, enge Beziehungsnetzwerke und langfristige Bindungen zwischen Betrieb und Beschaftigten eine entscheidende Rolle fur die Einbeziehung benachteiligter Beschaftigter in betriebliche Weiterbildungsaktivitaten spielen.

Im Oktober wurden die ersten Ergebnisse der PIAAC-Studie veröffentlicht. Nachdem in PISA die Kompetenzen von Schülerinnen und Schülern getestet wurden, wurden nunmehr die Erwachsenen geprüft. Führende an der Entwicklung und Auswertung von PIAAC beteiligte Personen – Beatrice Rammstedt, Silke Martin und Natascha Massing, GESIS – Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Mannheim, Andreas Schleicher, OECD, Simon Wiederhold und Ludger Wößmann, ifo Institut, Heike Solga, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), Mark Levels und Rolf van der Velden, Maastricht University, Cornelia Quennet-Thielen, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung – stellen erste Befunde zu Stand und Bedeutung der Grundkompetenzen Erwachsener vor.