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1. Introduction
The working population in the industrialized countries is gradually graying ([19] EC, 2008). This development gives rise to much debate on how to extend people's work-life and on how to increase labor participation and productivity ([35] Peterson, 1999; [16] Dychtwald et al. , 2006; [36] Phillipson and Smith, 2005; [37] Proper et al. , 2009). For a number of reasons lower educated workers deserve special attention in this debate.
First of all, the lower educated run a higher risk of not having the skills, knowledge or abilities needed to extend their productive period in the labor force. In 2010 nearly two million Dutch people were reported to be "lower" educated, meaning that they do not possess a so-called starter's-qualification on the ISCED-2 level ([15] Dutch Statistics, 2010). In order to remain a strong knowledge-based economy in which employers have access to a strong and well-educated labor force, this number needs to go down, as agreed upon in the Lisbon Accords in 2000.
Second, lower educated workers are more often in precarious jobs than intermediate and higher educated workers. They more often work in temporary jobs, physically more demanding jobs and in jobs with less job security and less financial security ([14] De Grip et al. , 2002; [4] Allen and De Grip, 2007; [39] Salverda, 2011). This decreases the possibility for lower educated workers to extend their active and productive work-life until the age of 65, not to mention 66 or 67.
Third, lower educated workers are reported to be less healthy, partly because of chronic illnesses, leading to more short-term or long-term career interruptions, absence on sick-leave and a further weakening of their labor market position, especially in the long run. Research has shown again and again that lower educated workers have a higher risk of becoming unemployed and also of staying unemployed for longer periods of time ([26] Gesthuizen, 2008). Apart from that there is also the risk of being crowded out by intermediate and higher educated workers ([26] Gesthuizen, 2008). Concurrent with the duration of periods of inactivity, either because of sickness or because of unemployment, certain skills may lose their labor market value, if not used or invested in. In economic literature this process is called atrophy, or "forgetting"...