This next working paper examines the intersection of technological change, gender, and care responsibilities in shaping access to job-related training across advanced economies. Prior to the rise of generative AI, automation primarily affected routine-intensive occupations, driving employment polarisation and disproportionately exposing certain groups, particularly women, to displacement risks. While training can mitigate these risks by facilitating reskilling, access is highly unequal: employer-sponsored programmes often favour workers whose skills complement technology, and mothers face additional constraints due to time poverty from unpaid care. Using the 2022 EU Labour Force Survey Job Skills module covering 26 European countries, we investigate how exposure to automation influences training participation, with a focus on gender and motherhood. We further explore whether access to formal childcare alleviates barriers to training and reduces participation gaps.
Key findings:
- Workers who need training most are the least likely to receive it
- Gender compounds this disadvantage
- Motherhood adds another dimension
- Thus, the combination of job automatability, gender and parenthood produces a pattern of cumulative disadvantage, the workers most urgently in need of upskilling to navigate technological disruption, mothers in automatable jobs, are those least likely to access it
Policy pointers:
- Government financed targeted training programmes should be designed for workers in automatable jobs, with a special focus on women and parents
- Extension of childcare support beyond standard hours may be needed to cover the ‘second shift’ of evening and weekend training
- Public funding is essential, because employers alone will not provide training to those they perceive as ‘at risk’
The rise of generative AI may intensify the pace of skill obsolescence, widening training needs across the workforce. Without targeted intervention, we risk leaving behind those who most need help to adapt.
Our study suggests that Europe faces a clear policy challenge: to ensure that those most exposed to automation, particularly mothers in routine intensive jobs, can access the training they need. Failure to address these compounded disadvantages will deepen social inequality, reduce labour force participation, and prevent Europe from fully benefiting from technological progress.
Read more here.