Workplace learning, adult skills and digital work participation in mid-to-later working life: evidence from nine PIAAC cycle 2 settings

Purpose This study examines associations of informal learning at work, assessed adult skills and everyday digital practice with digital work participation in mid-to-later working life. Design/methodology/approach Pooled public-use data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) Cycle 2 cover 14,444 adults aged 45–65 in nine selected countries and economies. Models combine ten plausible values and country-specific replicate-weight variances, with interaction and sensitivity analyses. Findings The age coefficient declined from −0.107 to −0.012 in population-weighted models but remained negative under country-equal weighting. Informal learning and home information and communication technology (ICT) use remained positively associated with work ICT use across alternative skill specifications and occupational adjustment, although work-context controls attenuated the learning association. Adaptive problem solving was sensitive to numeracy inclusion. Educational differences remained visible. Research limitations/implications Cross-sectional, complete-case estimates do not identify causal effects or national policy mechanisms and do not represent all adults aged 45–65. Practical implications The findings motivate evaluation of learning opportunities alongside digital training; they do not establish the effectiveness of specific interventions. Originality/value The study brings assessed skills and informal learning into a pooled analysis of later-working-life digital participation, distinguishing associations that persist across specifications from those sensitive to skill choice, job context and weighting.