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Research indicates that the proliferation of social media has widened a participation gap, also known as the digital divide, which affects mainly the low skilled and the low educated, because they are not media literate enough to use digital information in an effective, helpful and strategic way. [It is assumed] that social media use contributes to employability and sociality and media literacy complements a basic set of skills. [For] the low skilled and low educated who lack media literacy, [this] contributes to their precarious situation and increases a participation gap. In [this] study, [the authors] are especially interested in the role media literacy can play in in coping with flexibilization and deregulation of employment and competing for jobs.

[The study found] that self-presentation and self-profiling are important literacy practices, involving knowledge and skills related to participation in social and economic contexts and understanding of the relations between sociality, employability and networks. Media literacy is best approached as hands-on, situated and experiential, taught in a democratic and critical fashion and related to the attitudes and perspective of the low educated and the low skilled. There is however no clear answer what the complementary role of informal learning is and how literacy related skills and knowledge demanded for lifelong learning may change during the life course. It is also important that policies focussing on inclusion and participation broaden their perspective beyond individualistic notions and consider the influence of structuralizing mechanisms that create inequality and extend their explanations beyond those framed by economic theories, models and categories.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent student-perceived parental involvement predicted academic motivation in vocational education and training (VET) students. The sample comprised 2108 young adults participating in a VET institute. Thirty-three items were developed to measure student-perceived parental involvement in VET, as no appropriate questionnaire was available for this educational setting. This questionnaire was analysed with factor analyses which resulted in a new, short, and valid questionnaire with 10 items to measure parental involvement on five indicators. Consistent with prior research, parental involvement significantly predicted motivation in VET students. Three out of five parental involvement indicators were found related to motivation. Specifically, two indicators were positively related to motivation: (1) parent-child educational discussions, and (2) parental aspirations and expectations. The indicator 'reinforcement of learning at home' was negatively related to motivation. These findings provide additional evidence for the significance of parental involvement based upon its link with students' motivation in a VET context.

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