The Returns to Education and Post-School Education working unit deals, on the one hand, with the returns on education, i.e. the complex and dynamic processes through which qualifications, skills and educational certificates have an impact on very different aspects of life. On the other hand, it focuses on educational trajectories, processes and transitions beyond the first general school career.

In its first area of focus, the working unit addresses the monetary and non-monetary returns on education. Education is a basic prerequisite for stable labour market integration and economic independence and influences many other areas of life in youth and adulthood, such as health, satisfaction and active participation in social and political life. Low or inadequate education not only leads to a variety of risks for the individual, but also to higher costs for society as a whole. With its ‘NEPS Returns’ subunit, the working unit contributes to the recording of educational outcomes within the framework of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) and is dedicated to researching these relationships.

In its second focus area, the working unit deals with educational trajectories, educational processes and transitions beyond the first general school career. The focus is on the very complex transitions from school to vocational preparation, vocational training and academic education, especially in Germany, as well as the subsequent transitions from these educational stages to the labour market. Another focus is on catching up on general education qualifications, retraining and professional requalification. The ‘NEPS Post-School Education’ subunit accompanies the implementation and recording of these educational processes in the starting cohorts 6 and 8, and conducts research on the content and methodological aspects of these processes.