Abstract

Continuation of projects 1035 + 3238 + 3322. - Since the beginning of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), Stage 8 (Education in Adulthood and Lifelong Learning) has comprised the Adult Starting Cohort (NEPS-SC6; individuals born in Germany in 1944-1986 or up to age 75), and since 2018 also the Class 9 Starting Cohort (NEPS-SC4; mainly young adults born in 1994-1996). Both Stage 8 Starting Cohorts (NEPS-SC6 and NEPS-SC4) are part of a large-scale system of parallel surveys across the National Educational Panel Study that cover educational stages from early childhood to high adulthood. The NEPS-SC6 and NEPS-SC4 Starting Cohorts have been studying educational and employment trajectories in a long-term panel structure for more than ten years now, combined with retrospective life course recording and repeated competence measures in different domains. Thus, they provide a unique database for numerous socially relevant research questions. Some examples of these questions are: (1) What are the educational and employment trajectories of different societal groups in Germany? (2) Why do individuals participate in formal, non-formal, or informal learning activities after initial education? (3) How do societal groups differ in their competencies? How do competencies develop in adulthood? How does the employment situation affect competence development? (4) How do specific educational contexts in adulthood (in particular employment situation and family constellation) affect educational decisions and participation in further education? (5) What are the returns of basic skills, educational certificates, and work experience to wages, career paths, and other aspects of life? (6) What skills and resources do migrants have and to what extent do they participate in further education? (7) What opportunities and obstacles emerge in learning and education in later adulthood? (8) How do technological change and digitalization influence educational and employment trajectories? Within the framework of Stage 8, the IAB team administers the annual panel survey together with colleagues from the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) and continuously develops the survey program in order to create an always up-to-date database for answering these questions.