Abstract

What kind of connection can be found between personality traits, competencies, (missing) formal job qualification and participation in further education?
To answer this question the group of formal low qualified (in comparison to those with successful initial vocational training) will be examined in more detail. To add to the existing research the relation between schooling, competencies and personality traits (Big Five Traits, cf. Goldberg 1990) is analyzed. Based on these the connection between personality traits and the question whether, how and with which results this particular group takes part in further education is investigated. Therefore, the heterogeneous groups are defined by using information on life course- as well as context data utilizing the adult cohort of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS-E8). For the analysis to come the general measures of competencies (reading, mathematics, science and ICT) are used which are collected in the NEPS-E8. If significant effects are found this can contribute for example to the debate on lifelong learning. Furthermore the obtained results can add to the debate on how to motivate low skilled people, especially in the context of fairness in access to further education and labor market entry. These insights are important to support the heterogeneous group of low qualified more individually in lifelong learning.