The Impact of Learning on Women's Labour Market Transitions

Abstract

Women play an increasingly important role in the labour market and as wage earners. Moreover, in many countries, young women have outperformed men in terms of educational attainment and qualification. Still, women's human capital investment does not pay off as it does for men as they are still significantly disadvantaged on the labour market. Based on a qualitative empirical investigation with women in their mid-career, this article investigates the role of learning for women's labour market participation and career paths. Women's careers complexly intersect with role expectations, family needs, the career of the partner and anticipation of low returns of educational investment. This is typically reflected in discontinuous employment, part-time work and women's secondary wage earner position in the family. Furthermore, women qualified at the intermediate skills level are more likely to move horizontally in their career than vertically. Horizontal mobility thereby requires significant engagement with learning as the German labour market usually requires a formal qualification to realise a career change. Learning and further training thus become instrumental to facilitate and support women's career transitions, which are often aimed at re-entering regular employment after longer periods of family-related interruptions and/or to remain qualified in jobs in the social, health and educational fields, all of which are female dominated. Ultimately, women's significant engagement with continuing learning is not primarily expected to support career advancement and vertical mobility, particularly as it can neither alter discontinuities of employment nor the German-specific nexus between welfare, family and education policies and the labour market. This challenges the lifelong learning rhetoric insofar as one key aim of lifelong learning policies is to support labour market inclusion and the mobility of disadvantaged groups.

The German system of vocational education and training: challenges of gender, academisation and the integration of low-achieving youth

“…Here, the Meister and Techniker advanced vocational qualifications have been recognised, since 2014, as equivalent to a bachelor's degree in the German and European Qualifications Framework. Apart from facilitating entry into higher education, this further qualification is a central instrument for career progression in manufacturing and industry (Haasler, 2014). Research has also shown that the Meister qualification is linked to higher levels of job quality, including income (Wicht et al, 2019).…”

“…As changing between different school types is difficult, particularly when moving into higher school tracks (Blossfeld, 2018), the early allocation of pupils to the different tracks significantly determines subsequent educational and career choices. In addition, as a result of the high level of standardisation of VET in connection with the German labour market organised along occupational lines (Rubery and Grimshaw, 2003), access to jobs is highly structured by occupational certificates, which also limits mobility between occupations (Haasler, 2014). The vertical and horizontal stratification of the VET system (Protsch and Solga, 2016) that restricts job flexibility among the workforce, as well as social mobility (Schindler and Reimer, 2010; Solga, 2008), has been widely criticised.…”

Adecuación y demanda de formación en la empresa. la inencontrable adecuación entre formación y empleo

“…El sexo ha sido considerado en la literatura como una variable discriminante en el acceso de las mujeres a la formación en la empresa, en la preferencia empresarial por invertir en la formación de los hombres por cuanto ofrecen más garantías de continuidad en el puesto de trabajo y por tanto de retorno de la inversión (Dämmrich et al, 2015;Haasler, 2014). Hipotéticamen-te las mujeres tendrían más dificultades de adecuación a los puestos de trabajo y por tanto serán más demandantes de formación en la empresa, cuestión que exploraremos más adelante.…”

The role of learning and career guidance for managing mid-career transitions – comparing Germany and Denmark

“…Recent studies indicate that employment trajectories are becoming increasingly discontinuous with precarious employment being a main driver of disruptive career patters (Fromm & Bartelheimer, 2012;Hacket, 2012). At least in the case of middle-aged women it is unlikely that their work trajectories can be stabilised through major engagement with learning and further training (Haasler, 2014).…”

“…It may require conversion or retraining, entailing professional mobility and consequences on the work status and work-life balance, as work trajectories and private life tend to be closely connected. For women, family-related interruptions are often the cause for discontinuities of employment and constrain professional development opportunities later on (Haasler, 2014). While the reasons may be manifold, (re)entering the labour market tends to present a major challenge for individuals.…”