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Patterns of participation and non-participation in learning in mid-life and their determinants

ABSTRACT The literature on educational choices and participation has tended to focus on youth and to some extent on older adults, with little attention to the group in between. This paper therefore analyses participation in various types of learning by people in their 30s and 40s. This group are often juggling career and family life commitments meaning that there are substantial barriers and time constraints on learning participation. We draw on large-scale quantitative longitudinal data for Britain to examine the trajectory of engagement with learning using latent class analysis to identify patterns in the data and regression modelling to investigate explanatory factors. We show that both highest qualification reached by their early 30s and participation in learning activities of some kind in young adulthood are key antecedent factors predicting higher chances of participating in learning in mid-life. The research confirms the importance of cumulative processes in learning as in other aspects of the lifecourse.