This is, of course, a relatively inefficient, incomplete, and inequitable way of gaining information: The information available is likely to be incomplete (since a friend has usually attended a specific institution rather than learning about the variety of them), the recommendations may be coloured positively or negatively by personal and idiosyncratic experience, and individuals who are not part of extensive social networks are unlikely to be able to get information at all.
Moreover, as we show in the next section, information about the effectiveness of programs is rarely available.
Cost, time and family responsibilities: Another potential explanation for why so few individuals participate is that individuals may believe that the benefits do not justify the costs. Classical economic theory argues that individuals will not ‘invest’ time and resources in an activity unless they believe that they will receive a return on their investment. Again results from the Canada’s Adult Education and Training Survey (2003) are helpful here. Respondents who indicated that there was training that they wanted to take but did not, were asked to indicate their reasons for not taking training. Panel A of Figure 4.1 shows the results for this question for respondents without a high-school diploma. Among these respondents the five most commonly cited reasons for not taking training were: Cost, family responsibility, busy at work, conflict with work, and training was offered at an inconvenient time (respondents were allowed to check as many reasons as would apply). The survey also asked participants to identify the single most important reason for not participating in training. As Panel B shows, cost was most commonly identified as the most important barrier to participation followed by family responsibilities and busy at work.
Not worth it, lack of confidence: Interestingly, as Figure 4.1 shows, only a small proportion of individuals without a high-school education reported ‘not worth it’ as a reason for not taking training (less than 10 percent) and less than 5 percent reported it as the most important reason. Similarly, although women are almost twice as likely as men to report lack of confidence as a barrier, the figure for both groups is less than 10 percent. Given that most early high-school leavers have negative experiences with the formal education system, this finding is somewhat surprising. Certainly ethnographic evidence (e.g., Luttrell, 1997) suggests that for many adult learners returning to school involves confronting a number of fears. Results presented in Figure 4.1 show that lack of confidence is, however, relatively unimportant compared to other factors.
The empirical evidence suggests that time and costs are the most significant barriers to learning (Figure 4.1). In most provinces, tuition (for adult high-school courses) is free and in some provinces, learners are eligible for subsidies for transportation and childcare. However, in all provinces, learners still need to cover their living expenses. No province offers student loans for high-school-related learning. While most provinces allow social assistance recipients to participate in high-school-related upgrading programs, social assistance recipients represent only a small proportion of adults without a high-school diploma. Therefore most learners must combine work and study or rely on family members for support. Given that juggling work and family responsibilities is often difficult in the best of circumstances, it is not surprising that time is the second most common reason for not participating in adult learning.