Educational Attainment, Job-related Training, and Adult Skills: Cross-cohort Evidence from PIAAC

• In Event: 60.084 - Roundtable Session 20
  In Roundtable Session: 60.084-7 - International Issues: Students and Contexts

Abstract

In this study we used PIAAC data to examine the relationships among adults’ cognitive skills, job-related training, educational attainment, and age. PIAAC’s individual-level data across a broad age spectrum (age 16–65), especially with direct measures of cognitive skills in numeracy, literacy, and problem-solving areas, enabled us to examine these relationships across 22 economic entities. Results suggested that both educational attainment and job-related training are positively related to adult skills. Although both cognitive skills and incidence of training declined for older cohorts, the positive effects of high educational attainment on cognitive skills remained strong and consistent across age cohorts. In addition, we found tight connections among educational attainment, the probability of receiving job-related training, and adult skills. Specifically, individuals with higher educational attainment were more likely to receive job-related training. More importantly, the strength of this connection did not seem to wane for older cohorts. Taken together, these results suggest complementarity between formal education and job-related training, i.e., (initial) learning begets (future) learning; they work in tandem to enhance the lifelong cognitive skills of individuals with higher educational attainment

Authors

• Liang Zhang, The Pennsylvania State University

• Huacong Liu, The Pennsylvania State University - University Park