Geht das stärkere Engagement von Frauen in Pflege und Unterstützung auf ihre geringere Arbeitsmarktbeteiligung zurück? Ein Beitrag zur Gleichstellungsdebatte

Zusammenfassung Frauen leisten nach wie vor mehr private Sorgearbeit als Männer, obwohl ihre Erwerbsbeteiligung in den letzten Jahren deutlich gestiegen ist. In diesem Beitrag untersuchen wir auf Basis des Deutschen Alterssurveys 1996 bis 2017 im Längsschnitt, ob das stärkere Engagement von Frauen in der Übernahme unbezahlter Unterstützung und Pflege für gesundheitlich eingeschränkte Angehörige darauf zurückgeht, dass sie im Vergleich zu Männern nach wie vor seltener, mit geringerem Stundenumfang sowie geringerer beruflicher Qualifikation am Arbeitsmarkt beteiligt sind. Diese Hypothese wird nicht bestätigt, denn bestehende Geschlechterunterschiede in Pflege und Unterstützung können allenfalls partiell durch die geschlechtsspezifische Arbeitsmarktbeteiligung aufgeklärt werden. Abstract: Does Women’s Lower Labor Force Participation Explain their Higher Engagement in Private Care Work? A Contribution to the Debate about Gender Equality Women do still provide more private care work than men, although their participation in employment has increased in the last decades. Using longitudinal data of the German Ageing Survey 1996 to 2017, in this paper, we study, whether women’s greater engagement in unpaid social support and care giving can be attributed to the fact that women compared to men are still less economically active and have a lower occupational qualification. This hypothesis, however, cannot be confirmed, as the gender differences in the private unpaid care work can be explained by gender differences in the labor force participation only to a small amount.

The effects of different lookback periods on the sociodemographic structure of the study population and on the estimation of incidence rates: analyses with German claims data

Background Defining incident cases has always been a challenging issue for researchers working with routine data. Lookback periods should enable researchers to identify and exclude recurrent cases and increase the accuracy of the incidence estimation. There are different recommendations for lookback periods depending on a disease entity of up to 10 years. Well-known drawbacks of the application of lookback periods are shorter remaining observation period in the dataset or smaller number of cases. The problem of selectivity of the remaining population after introducing lookback periods has not been considered in the literature until now. Methods The analyses were performed with pseudonymized claims data of a German statutory health insurance fund with annual case numbers of about 2,1 million insured persons. Proportions of study population excluded due to the application of lookback periods are shown according to age, occupational qualification and income. Myocardial infarction and stroke were used to demonstrate changes in incidence rates after applying lookback periods of up to 5 years. Results Younger individuals show substantial dropouts after the application of lookback periods. Furthermore, there are selectivities regarding occupational qualification and income, which cannot be handled by age standardization. Due to selective dropouts of younger individuals, crude incidence rates of myocardial infarction and stroke increase after applying lookback periods. Depending on the income group, age-standardized incidence rates changed differentially, leading to a decrease and possible underestimation of the social gradient after applying lookback periods. Conclusions Selectivity analyses regarding age and sociodemographic structure should be performed for the study population after applying lookback periods since the selectivity can affect the outcome especially in health care research. The selectivity effects might occur not only in claims data of one health insurance fund, but also in other longitudinal data with left- or right-censoring not covering the whole population. The effects may also apply to health care systems with a mix of public and private health insurance. A trade-off has to be considered between selectivity effects and eliminating recurrent events for more accuracy in the definition of incidence.

Exploring the relationship between teacher professionality and occupational experience

Professional development is a key process within the wider agenda of raising standards and increasing societal growth capacity by improving teaching policy and practice in education. The aim of the research was to explore the relations between teacher’s professionality and occupational qualifications. Forty teachers were asked to estimate their pedagogical, core and holistic representation competencies. The correlation analysis was applied to investigate the relations between the length of employment and the competencies. The results indicated positive but weak correlations that suggest the relationship between learning gains and development need as well as between assessment and targeted feedback. A negative but still weak correlation was found between the length of employment and ensuring physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. Future work will focus on elaborating the instrument used in this study as well as the experimental setup in order to gain further insights and reliable results. Keywords: Professional development, occupational qualification, lifelong learning.

Professional qualifications for the insurance industry: Dilemmas for articulation and progression

In South Africa, the lack of articulation between vocational college programmes and those ofuniversities has long been a source of frustration for college learners seeking vertical progressionpathways. The introduction of a National Qualifications Framework in 1995 appeared to offer hopeof bridging the divide between occupational, practically focused qualifications and traditionalacademic qualifications, but, some 20 years later, the stumbling blocks are still evident in spite ofconcerted national policy efforts. This article reflects on a project conducted over a five-yearperiod that intended to ‘create a progression pathway for TVET candidates into university’ in theinsurance industry and the lessons learned in that process. What at first glance might haveappeared to be simply a hostile environment for articulation and institutional intransigence, onfurther reflection revealed deep-seated curriculum issues associated with qualifications that wereunderstood to differ fundamentally in function and therefore in form. The article draws, inter alia,on Bernstein’s (1999) theorisation of practical and disciplinary learning to show how a curriculumhas an impact on pedagogies, assessment and quality assurance structures. After examining whycollege candidates who had succeeded in the first-level occupational qualification with its largeworkplace component struggled to complete subsequent university levels, the article concludesthat divergent curricula and pedagogies will need serious attention if aspirations for more seamlessarticulation and easier progression are to become reality.

Occupational assessment model as a regulation tool in the wholesale and retail sector

The aim of this study was to critically evaluate the implementation requirements of the new system of occupational qualification and part qualifications in South Africa, from the perspective of industry and other stakeholders who are affected by the change. The methodology adopted was qualitative, including an analysis of secondary data, namely South African and international policy documents on assessment. This was followed by empirical research, using individual interviews and a survey applied via regional focus groups. A purposive sample of 67 stakeholders, made up of business, training providers, quality assurance experts and W&RSETA staff, was selected. Data was analysed using a thematic identifier, looking for common trends that were then grouped according to categories. Each questionnaire was dissected and classified according to the categories. Independent checks were put into place in which data was cross-referenced and audited to ensure that all findings produced were error free. The main findings were that an assessment model would need to be flexible to meet the industry’s various needs. Furthermore, a standard operating procedure is required, industry consultation on their needs and assessment planning is needed to minimise disruption of operations, and a formalized process by which roles are linked to standard operating procedures and the ability to perform competently against them is necessary.