Different systems, same inequalities? Post-compulsory education and young adults’ literacy in 18 OECD countries

Abstract

Education is increasingly seen as a substitute for social policy, but opportunities for skill development vary by social background and educational institutions are not neutral in this respect. While previous research has extensively examined how schooling affects skills distribution, the role of post-compulsory education has been long overlooked. Using data from the 2011/2012 Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competences, this article investigates how selected features of upper secondary and tertiary education are connected to the social stratification of young adults’ literacy skills in 18 OECD countries. First, I use individual-level regressions to assess the extent to which disparities in the skills of 24- to 29-year-old individuals are explained by parental education in each country. Second, I apply fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis across countries to investigate under which institutional conditions the social stratification of young adults’ literacy skills is most severe. The findings point to the existence of functionally equivalent education regimes: young adults face severe disparities not only in socially selective higher education systems but also in relatively open systems characterized by institutional differentiation; moreover, disparities arising during compulsory schooling are consequential for the skill distribution of young adults, underscoring the importance of a life-course approach to education policies. © 2017, © The Author(s) 2017.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Vocational training Higher education educational inequalities QCA fuzzy sets Educational systems

Index Keywords

higher education training adult female human male young adult Vocational education literacy education policy human experiment young population secondary education Social stratification fuzzy mathematics Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development differentiation

Author Affiliations

Research Unit “Skill Formation and Labor Markets”, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin fur Sozialforschung, Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Funding & Acknowledgements

European Commission, EC

Funding text 1: of their market and governance structure in the early 2000s (Santiago et al., 2008: 351–75). Additional information comes from the study on tertiary education governance conducted for the European Commission by the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS) of the University of Twente (CHEPS, 2006) and from the report on governance structure conducted in the framework of the MODERN project for the modernization of HE, sponsored by the European Commission (De Boer and File, 2009).12; Funding text 2: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the College for Interdisciplinary Educational Research (a joint initiative of the BMBF, the Jacobs Foundation and the Leibniz Association).

Leibniz-Gemeinschaft

Funding text 1: of their market and governance structure in the early 2000s (Santiago et al., 2008: 351–75). Additional information comes from the study on tertiary education governance conducted for the European Commission by the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS) of the University of Twente (CHEPS, 2006) and from the report on governance structure conducted in the framework of the MODERN project for the modernization of HE, sponsored by the European Commission (De Boer and File, 2009).12; Funding text 2: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the College for Interdisciplinary Educational Research (a joint initiative of the BMBF, the Jacobs Foundation and the Leibniz Association).

University of Twente

Funding text 1: of their market and governance structure in the early 2000s (Santiago et al., 2008: 351–75). Additional information comes from the study on tertiary education governance conducted for the European Commission by the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS) of the University of Twente (CHEPS, 2006) and from the report on governance structure conducted in the framework of the MODERN project for the modernization of HE, sponsored by the European Commission (De Boer and File, 2009).12; Funding text 2: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the College for Interdisciplinary Educational Research (a joint initiative of the BMBF, the Jacobs Foundation and the Leibniz Association).

Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF

Funding text 1: of their market and governance structure in the early 2000s (Santiago et al., 2008: 351–75). Additional information comes from the study on tertiary education governance conducted for the European Commission by the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS) of the University of Twente (CHEPS, 2006) and from the report on governance structure conducted in the framework of the MODERN project for the modernization of HE, sponsored by the European Commission (De Boer and File, 2009).12; Funding text 2: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the College for Interdisciplinary Educational Research (a joint initiative of the BMBF, the Jacobs Foundation and the Leibniz Association).

Jacobs Foundation

Funding text 1: of their market and governance structure in the early 2000s (Santiago et al., 2008: 351–75). Additional information comes from the study on tertiary education governance conducted for the European Commission by the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS) of the University of Twente (CHEPS, 2006) and from the report on governance structure conducted in the framework of the MODERN project for the modernization of HE, sponsored by the European Commission (De Boer and File, 2009).12; Funding text 2: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the College for Interdisciplinary Educational Research (a joint initiative of the BMBF, the Jacobs Foundation and the Leibniz Association).

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Different systems, same inequalities? Post-compulsory education and young adults’ literacy in 18 OECD countries

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