Wuttke, E. & Seeber, S. (2019). Who participates in continuous vocational education and training and why do they do it? In F. Marhuenda & M.J. Chisvert-Tarazona (Eds.), Pedagogical concerns and market demands in VET. Proceedings of the 3 rd Crossing Boundaries in VET conference, Vocational Education and Training Network (VETNET) (pp.353-362) https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2641934 Who participates in Continuous Vocational Education and Training and why do they do it? Wuttke, Eveline Chair of Business and Ecomomic Education/Goethe University Frankfurt, wuttke@em.uni- frankfurt.de Seeber, Susan Chair of Business Education and Human Ressource Development/Georg-August-University Goettingen, susan.seeber@wiwi.uni-goettingen.de Abstract Demographic, political and technological trends cause an increasing shortage in skilled labor in specific economy sectors (health care, hotel/restaurant industry, trade, technology) in most industrialized European countries (Cedefop, 2016). Consequently, companies/employers are forced to fill a rising number of job vacancies with currently unexploited labor force potential (e.g. unqualified/low qualified people, people returning from career breaks or those with mi- gration background as well as older employees and unemployed people). On the other hand, there is still a substantial number of non-working people of employable age (potential addi- tional labor force, Eurostat, data extracted in May 2017), especially if we look at the groups mentioned above. Hence, to ensure participation in working life and to provide companies with sufficient workforce, CVET (Continuous Vocational Education and Training) measures are essential. CVET can be defined as the continuation or resumption of more or less organ- ized learning after the completion of a first education phase. Previous studies usually focus on attendance figures. Taking the results of these studies into account, it shows that some groups of employees are underrepresented. However, little is known about the motivation to attend CVET or what motivates companies to offer trainings, especially for our target groups. In part of our studies (interview study and quantitative survey), we refer to all four sec- tors (see above) of the economy. In a vignette study we concentrate on health care and ho- tel/restaurant industry. In these two sectors there is the most severe shortage of skilled work- ers, which is true for most European countries. Furthermore, many people belonging to our target groups work in these sectors without being adequately qualified. 1 Introduction As early as 2013, many sectors had struggled with hard-to-fill vacancies (Brenzel et al. 2014; particularly the health and social services sector, the hotel and restaurant industry, and the retail and technology sectors; Czepek et al. 2015). Reasons are: 1 Demographic changes in most industrialized nations lead to a decrease in qualified work- force (Cedefop, 2015). 2 Structural changes: A decline in jobs in the manufacturing sectors is accompanied by new jobs in secondary service sectors; the demand for qualified workers will increase (Helm- rich et al. 2016, p. 73).