Significance of caesuras in educational biographies for the continuing training participation of older workers

The National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) provides the basis for an investigation into the effects of formal educational processes on continuing vocational training in the second half of working life. Contrary to the assumption derived from qualitative studies, the findings presented show that educational biography histories in adulthood do not exert any significant influence on the continuing training behaviour of older employees. At the same time, the familiar predictors of continuing training behaviour prove to be relatively stable, even if later formal educational processes are taken into account, whereby the variable of gender is revealed to be a surprisingly strong influencing factor.