Abstract

Regarding the discussions about the importance of literacy and numeracy skills for adolescents it is surprising that only few empirical studies can be found in Germany and internationally that address the relevance of such cognitive competencies for adults’ employment careers.

Thus the project aims at analysing connections between educational credentials, basic cognitive skills and employment trajectories of adults in a longitudinal perspective. The project has three main research questions: first, the interplay of cognitive skills and education certificates in different employment groups; second, the relevance of skills compared to credentials for employment success and their effects in different stages of employment trajectories, and third, the interdependency between employment situation, educational participation and the change of skills.

Methodologically, the project affiliates to the skill concept of education assessment research. In this strand of research huge international studies were conducted: PISA and TIMSS for children, IALS and ALL for adults. Apart from US and Canadian studies the literature on adult skills is based nearly exclusively on these two data bases. Germany only participated in IALS, and the data of this study are still under-analysed. Also internationally only few studies exist that are focussed on connections between skills and the employment situation or have a longitudinal design.