Beyond the Incidence of Employer-Provided Training

Using data from a 1994 survey of U.S. establishments, the authors investigate how the incidence, content, and extent of employer-provided training were linked to workplace practices and characteristics, physical capital investments, and workers' education. Formal training programs were positively associated with establishment size, the presence of high-performance work systems (such as Total Quality Management), capital-intensive production, and workers' education level. “General” types of training programs in computing and basic education were most likely in establishments that were large, were part of a multi-establishment firm, had low employee turnover, or had high-performance work systems. The percentage of workers given training was highest in establishments that had made large investments in physical capital or had adopted new forms of work organization, especially in the manufacturing sector. These results suggest that employer-provided training complements rather than substitutes for investments in physical capital and education.