Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

Table 11: Sectoral distribution of workers aged 50 years and more in Germany and
Poland (2008)
Sector Agriculture Mining Industry Energy & Construction Services incl.
water supply
trade
Germany 2,6% 0,3% 19,9% 1,5% 5,9% 69,7%
Poland 21,1% 1,1% 16,8% 3,1% 7,8% 50,2%
Source: Eurostat – Population and Social Conditions, own calculations based on data extracted on
13.09.2009.
The chances for prolonged employment rise with the qualification level
(Courtioux/Erhel 2006: 33; Zaidi/Fuchs 2006: 16). Within EU-27, Germany and Poland are
well-positioned with regard to the educational attainment of prime-aged workers of whom
more than 80 per cent have completed at least upper secondary education (EC 2007: 210).
That poses chances for the increasing deployment of future cohorts of older workers in
expanding knowledge-intensive industries. With regard to current older workers, the
situation looks quite well in Germany (OECD 2005a: 126) and not as good in Poland, where
only 45 per cent of persons aged 50-64 years have completed higher or upper secondary
education (MPiPS 2008: 39).
There is a strong correlation between the educational attainment of older persons and
their participation in education and training (EC 2007: 95). While Germany has a wellorganised
system or initial vocational education, it is lagging behind Northern European and
Benelux countries in the field of continuous training, especially with regard to the training
of older persons (OECD 2005a: 127-8). The Polish system of adult education is
underdeveloped and persons aged 50+ and the unemployed are seldom included in such
measures (MPiPS 2008: 40-41). The low numbers of training at workplace level are, inter
al., due to overrepresentation of SME which do not have enough funds for schooling
(Wiśniewski 2002: 335). The Polish government wants to target education subsidies on
persons aged 45+ and refund establishments for up to 80 per cent of training costs (MPiPS
2008: 17ff).
Despite the better infrastructure, Germans aged 55-64 have comparatively low
participation quotas in further training. In the year 2004, 3.1 per cent of them participated in
further training, compared to 8.2 per cent among all workers aged 25-64, and to 30.1 per
cent among elderly Swedes 3839 . Older Poles were only slightly better positioned with regard
to further training (quota of 4%; OECD 2005a: 128).
38 „Ältere im internationalen Vergleich: Früh krümmt sich...“, IAB Forum 2/06, 53-56.
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