Personality Traits and Further Training

The notion of lifelong learning is gaining importance, not only in the labor market but also
in other areas ofmodern societies. Previous research finds variation in occupation-related
training participation by worker and workplace characteristics, gender, and education.
However, evidence on the individual’s socio-emotional skills creating favorable conditions
for overall further training is scarce. To close this research gap, we analyze the role
of personality for further training participation. First, we compare how the Big Five
Personality Dimensions relate to different training types by differentiating between
non-formal and informal training measures. Second, we investigate how personality
traits affect further training chosen for occupational and private reasons separately.
Drawing on a sample of 10,559 individuals from the Adult Stage of the German National
Educational Panel Study (NEPS), we find that throughout our estimations, openness to
experience positively relates to further training participation and is the most important
determinant among the Big Five Personality Dimensions. However, the relationship
between personality traits and training participation varies according to the training type
and the reason for participating in further training. Moreover, we find gender-specific
differences in the association between personality traits and lifelong learning. We
conclude that personality is an important predictor of lifelong learning decisions.