Cumulative Inequalities over the Life-Course: Life-long Learning and Social Mobility in Britain

Abstract

This paper examines the possibility that life-long learning promotes intergenerational class mobility. The following two research questions are asked. Is it the case that further education provides individuals coming from less advantaged origins with a second chance to improve on their educational attainment? Is it the case that the returns to further qualifications, in terms of chances of upward class career mobility, are greater for children from less advantaged backgrounds than for children from more advantaged backgrounds? The analyses -that are based on the complete educational and class histories of men and women in a British birth cohort -mainly produce negative findings. Children coming from managerial and professional backgrounds seem to benefit most from further education. More specifically, further education appears to be an effective means of career advancement for individuals of managerial and professional origins who start out in their working lives in relatively low-level class positions. Via further education they can increase or update their qualifications, and in turn enhance their chances of being counter-mobile back to their class of origin. Overall, based on the findings of this paper, we can conclude that qualifications attained through life-long learning primarily serve to maintain, rather than to narrow, inequalities attached to social origins in Britain.

The Land of Opportunity? Trends in Social Mobility and Education in the United States

“…That is, the link between education and social class is weaker among individuals with high social class backgrounds, presumably because higher class families can achieve social reproduction also outside the educational system. This interpretation is also in line with findings from Great Britain that document how individuals from higher social origins successfully use further education to correct for initial educational failures (Bukodi 2016). 4 Torche (2011) also documented a re-emergence of the OD association among those with a post-graduate degree.…”

Social class mobility in modern Britain: changing structure, constant process

“…Parental social contacts and networks may play a part here. But far more important, our research suggests (Bukodi 2016;Gugushvili et al 2016), is the fact that the more advantaged individuals' backgrounds, the more likely they are to gain further qualifi cations over the course of their working lives, and especially so if their previous educational performance was only modest. And in this case then, in helping to reverse any initial downward mobility, further education clearly serves to promote intergenerational immobility.…”

Context of validation of non-formal and informal learning in Spain: a comprehensive view

“…There is evidence that young people, those who have high education levels, those who have a job, or those working in highly skilled occupations, are the ones more often involved in lifelong learning programmes (Boyadjieva & Illieva-Trichkova, 2017;Roosmaa & Saar, 2012). In this regard, Bukodi (2016) argues that lifelong learning mainly serves as a way of maintaining inequalities associated with social origins rather than reducing them. In fact, as Walker (2012) argues, the more privileged classes accumulate more resources and advantages, even in education.…”