Trends in participation in nonformal education in the second half of life. Increasing educational participation in retirement

BackgroundResearch on nonformal education often focuses on participation within employment. Participation of workers decreases with age; however, recent studies show an increase in participation in nonformal education of older workers. It remains, however, unclear if this trend spills over to retirement.ObjectiveIn the context of social change processes, trends in nonformal educational participation are analyzed. The study addresses employment and retirement as opportunity structures and investigates their impact on educational participation in the second half of life.MethodsPredictors of educational participation are modeled in logistic regression, including interaction effects. Analyses are based on cross-sectional data of the German Ageing Survey and covers 20,129 respondents aged 40-85years (T-1: 1996 n= 4838; T-2: 2002 n= 3084; T-3: 2008 n= 6205; T-4: 2014 n= 6002).ResultsEducational level, age, gender, employment status, region, social integration, and subjective health predict participation in nonformal education for people aged 40 to 85years. Employment as an opportunity structure has aconstant impact on participation, whereas retirees' participation increases over the course of time.ConclusionsThe increase of retirees' participation in nonformal education is discussed in the context of social change processes and connected to theoretical und empirical research gaps with regard to educational participation in the second half of life.