The Role of Industrial Relations and Social Dialogue in Improving Adult Learning Outcomes and Equity

This paper seeks to empirically assess the relationship between features of industrial relations and social dialogue and adult learning (AL) participation and outcomes in the EU27. It in particular sets out to understand if stronger industrial relations and social dialogue contribute to (i) higher adult learning participation rates, and (ii) more equity in accessing adult learning opportunities by various typically disadvantaged groups. These questions are empirically addressed in this paper by means of descriptive and statistical analyses, using data covering two perspectives: the worker perspective (European Union Labour Force Survey) and the firm perspective (European Company Survey). This data is combined with institutional data measuring industrial relations in the EU, extracted from the OECD-AIAS-ICTWSS dataset. The paper also combines macro-level analysis of broader trends with a micro-level view at the level of firms. Using different datasets and approaches, this working paper confirms a link between the level of social dialogue and the levels of adult learning participation across the EU27. This is an important finding which enlarges the plethora of tools that could be potentially harnessed in improving access to adult learning in the lagging countries.