Objectives of the National Educational Panel Study
In modern knowledge societies, education is the central prerequisite for economic growth and prosperity as well as for coping with new challenges in a rapidly changing, globalized world.
The National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) is being conducted in Germany in order to find out more about the acquisition of education and its consequences for individual life courses and to describe and analyze key educational processes and trajectories over the entire lifespan.
The objectives of this study relate to questions such as how competencies develop over the life course, how competencies influence decision-making processes at various critical transitions in educational careers (and vice versa), how and to what extent competencies are influenced by learning opportunities in the family, the peer group and the design of teaching and learning processes in kindergarten, school, higher education, vocational training and further education.
In addition, it should be clarified which competencies are decisive for the achievement of educational qualifications, which for lifelong learning and which for a successful individual and social life.
To this end, it is necessary to measure skills development not only in kindergarten or in the general school system, but also in vocational training, during studies and after leaving the education system.
The aim of the NEPS study is to collect longitudinal data on skills development, educational processes, educational decisions and educational returns in formal, non-formal and informal contexts across the entire lifespan.
The NEPS study therefore comprises six cohorts that start at different stages of life and are each followed over a longer period of time.
Tasks of infas
Within the framework of NEPS, infas mainly conducts telephone surveys (CATI) and face-to-face surveys (CAPI) as well as written-postal surveys (PAPI) and online surveys (CAWI).
Computer-assisted combined longitudinal and cross-sectional instruments are used, supplemented by competence tests. The surveys are also conducted in several languages with questionnaires in German, Turkish and Russian.
In addition, infas is responsible for the annual panel maintenance, panel participant support and tracking.
