"We analyse the gender training gap (i.e. the disadvantage of women in receiving work-related continuing training) based on individual data from the first wave of the Adult Education Survey (AES). The interaction of gender and education, we argue, has been overlooked in previous work. For only one of 22 European countries do we find a statistically significant training gap for women with a university degree—but in six countries, we find a statistically significant and sizeable training gap for women without a university degree. Multilevel analysis supports the results and shows that institutions are linked to the chances of training. In particular, a system of vocational education and training geared towards firm-specific skills enhances the female training gap. Overall, our paper shows that the widespread perception of a disappearing gender training gap is premature."

Support: Digital