Weiterbildungsbeteiligung – Ursachen unterschiedlicher Teilnahmequoten in verschiedenen Datenquellen

The scientific and political interest concerning the topic of further education increases more and more. That is the reason why nowadays many surveys collect information on the determinants of the participation in further education. However, the results of those surveys differ strongly. This raises the question about the actual magnitude of the participation in further education. This article reveals differences and similarities of four individual and household surveys which are compared in regard to their questions concerning further education: the Adult Education Survey, the BIBB/BAuA-Workers’ Survey, the German Microcensus and the German Socio-Economic Panel. Additionally, own calculations are performed in order to examine whether the results converge if a similar basis for the comparison is used in all four mentioned data sources. The interrogation process for informal further education as well as the overall relevance of further education in the survey and hence its scope und detailing of the questions play an important role in the comparison and for the attempt to minimize the differences.