Participation of Russian Youth in Adult Education and Training and the Labor Market Outcomes

Despite the fact that there are many opportunities to achieve success and occupy leading positions, inequality persists in the labor market. One of the important personality characteristics explaining this disparity is perseverance. This study is a continuation of the study of the mechanisms of reproduction of inequality. In this work, we test the role of perseverance in combination with other individual resources, including education. The purpose of the study is to find out how perseverance affects the processes of accumulation of benefits through education and training. We consider both the level of education already achieved and participation in various educational activities. The study of the results in the labor market is based on data from the longitudinal study "Trajectories in education and profession" (TROP). We use regression analysis to analyze the data. We found that perseverance enhances the positive effects of participating in informal work-related learning. This means that perseverance in achieving goals is a resource that contributes to the accumulation of benefits, in particular, educational and economic ones. Thus, perseverance participates in the reproduction of inequality. The similarity of the results of this work with the results obtained earlier in the analysis of participation in educational activities and their impact on the locus of control may indicate that similar mechanisms operate in the case of persistence.