Heike Solga is professor of sociology at the Institute for Sociology at the Georgia Augusta University Gottingen, Germany. She is a member of the board of directors of the Institute for Sociological Research Gottingen (SOFI), and from 2000-2005, she was head of the Independent Research Group named 'Lack of Training: Employment and Life Chances of the Less Educated' at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.