The Impact of Education and Training on the Level of Poverty or Social Exclusion in European Countries

Abstract

Education is said to be the “great equalizer of the conditions of men”. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between participation rate in education and training and people at risk of poverty and social exclusion. The source of data, used in the research, is Eurostat. The data represents the 25-64-year-old age group. The analyzed period is 2016-2020. It represents both genders in 34 European countries. Some countries were excluded from the analysis due to the lack of data for some years within the analyzed period. For each variable measures of descriptive statistics (measures of central tendency, measures of variability and measures of asymmetry) were calculated. Then the Pearson correlation of coefficient and coefficient of determination were computed. To assess the significance of the correlation of coefficient, hypothesis testing was performed. The procedure was performed using rejection region method and two-tailed p-vale method. Although, in 2016 and 2017, a strong linear correlation was detected between the participation rate in education and training and people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, its significance is gradually decreasing. Despite this, it should be emphasized that children born in poverty or in socially excluded families have a lower chance of succeeding in education and thus escape from the vicious circle of poverty. Thus, education should still be perceived as an important factor, and the main ‘tool’ to fight against poverty.