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26. A Study on the Socio-Economic Effects of Lifelong Learning
Mee-Souk Kim, Sng-Bo Kim, Su-Myeung Jang
In this paper, we will analyze the social and economic outcomes of lifelong learning in the national-social aspect. In particular, this paper aims to develop an understanding that lifelong learning influences nations and individuals from the socio-economic perspective.
For this, we will analyze the relationship between economic outcomes and the entire social cohesion and stability in the nation to help grasp the economic and social outcomes of lifelong learning in Korea.
This research project will provide an analysis of how lifelong learning affects, as a democratic citizen, individuals' citizenship through the accumulation of an individual's social capital, in terms of social cohesion and stability.
The results are as follows:
Korea now sits among the most advanced nations in the world, ranking 8th among 111 countries in average educational training, 6th in university attendance, and 9th in secondary education levels of the adult population.
While the average educational training in Korea has slowed compared with the early period of the country's economic development, it is found that the participation in adult lifelong educational training has increased faster than the income level over time. The result from a regression shows that as GDP per capita increases, the level of education and the participation in lifelong learning of the adult population increases.
We empirically tested the relationship between lifelong learning and social cohesion. This paper reports the OLS of the life satisfaction and the participation in social activity groups, the weighed OLS considering each country's sample, and the results of the regression from the To bit Model, including the weight and two-side limitation (limit). The fact lifelong learning is a measure generating social cohesion shows the importance of
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lifelong learning to social safety and development over the long-term. As the rate of participation in social activity groups is high, individuals tend to contribute to social cohesion, and this means that education as lifelong learning is closely related to social activities. Also, a sense of belonging to nations is significant with relatively high educational levels and effectiveness in social trust, with, in contrast, no effect on formal lifelong education levels.
This paper investigates the relationship between lifelong learning and citizenship by conducting a cross-sectional and a longitudinal analysis. The longitudinal analysis uses Social Survey Data from 1996 to 2008, and the results show that there have consistently been inequalities in sex, age, education, and economic activity involving participation in lifelong learning.
In the relationship between the rate of participation in lifelong learning and citizenship, social stability and the awareness of the environment tend to increase when participation in lifelong learning increases. In the cross-sectional analysis, we tested the three effects of lifelong learning influencing citizenship using a 25-64 year-old adult sample from the first social survey data in 2008. As a result, we found that participation in lifelong learning is not related to an awareness of social safety and legality, but it does have a positive effect on environmental awareness to a significant level. The period of lifelong participation only influences environmental awareness to the extent that whether to participate in lifelong learning does. Among the types of lifelong learning, it is shown that job training effects legality, and enrollment in private educational institutes, courses through the TV, radio, and the Internet have a positive influence on environmental awareness.
