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Who benefits from apprenticeships and training?

Schools, colleges, and firms are increasingly realizing the benefits of providing work experience and training programs for students and workers to enhance the skills of current and future employees. Vocational and on-the-job training can help youth onto the job ladder and encourage existing employees to be more productive and innovative, and to retire later, having increased the employability of older workers. Informal learning is also an important driver of human capital development in the workplace, with useful skills passing between co-workers throughout our working lives. 

Apprenticeships train a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession by combining on-the-job training with study. Apprenticeship systems vary widely across countries but have proven to be a profitable investment for firms as well as workers. Whereas Belgium, France, and the US have seen little penetration into occupations outside the construction and manufacturing industries, take-up in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland is high, and is also increasing in popularity in Australia and England.

Generally, training and apprenticeships have been shown to be a profitable investment for employers as well as workers. 

  • Evaluating apprenticeship training programs for firms

    Cost–benefit surveys of employers help design more effective training policies

    Apprenticeship training programs typically last several years and require substantial investments by training firms, largely due to the associated labor costs for participants and instructors. Nevertheless, apprentices also add significant value in the workplace. One tool to measure the costs and benefits of training for firms is employer surveys, which were first introduced in the 1970s in Germany. Such cost–benefit surveys (CBS) help to better understand a firm's demand for apprentices and to identify market failures. Therefore, CBS are an important tool for designing effective training policies.
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  • The dynamics of training programs for the unemployed Updated

    Job search training and occupational skills training are both effective

    Aderonke Osikominu, December 2021
    Time plays an important role in both the design and interpretation of evaluation studies of training programs. While the start and duration of a training program are closely linked to the evolution of job opportunities, the impact of training programs in the short and longer term changes over time. Neglecting these “dynamics” could lead to an unduly negative assessment of the effects of certain training schemes. Therefore, a better understanding of the dynamic relationship between different types of training and their respective labor market outcomes is essential for a better design and interpretation of evaluation studies.
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  • Is training effective for older workers? Updated

    Training programs that meet the learning needs of older workers can improve their employability

    Matteo Picchio, July 2021
    The labor market position of older workers is cause for concern in many industrialized countries. Rapid population aging is challenging pension systems. The recent economic crisis has forced many older adults out of the workforce, into either pre-retirement or non-employment. Encouraging people to work longer and fostering the employability of older workers have become priorities for policymakers. Training specifically designed for older workers might help attain these goals, since it may refresh human capital and reduce the pay–productivity gap. Training older workers might also benefit employers and society as a whole.
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  • The labor market in Germany, 2000–2018 Updated

    The transformation of a notoriously rigid labor market into a role model of its own style is essentially complete

    Hilmar SchneiderUlf Rinne, December 2019
    The EU's largest economy, Germany, has managed to find an effective and unique combination of flexibility and rigidity in its labor market. Institutions that typically characterize rigid labor markets are effectively balanced by flexibility instruments. Important developments since 2000 include steadily decreasing unemployment rates (since 2005), increasing participation rates, and (since 2011) moderately increasing labor compensation. The German labor market was remarkably robust to the impacts of the Great Recession, thus providing a useful case study for other developed countries.
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  • Do firms benefit from apprenticeship investments? Updated

    Why spending on occupational skills can yield economic returns to employers

    Robert Lerman, October 2019
    Economists have long believed that firms will not pay to develop occupational skills that workers could use in other, often competing, firms. Researchers now recognize that firms that invest in apprenticeship training generally reap good returns. Evidence indicates that financial returns to firms vary. Some recoup their investment within the apprenticeship period, while others see their investment pay off only after accounting for reduced turnover, recruitment, and initial training costs. Generally, the first year of apprenticeships involves significant costs, but subsequently, the apprentice's contributions exceed his/her wages and supervisory costs. Most participating firms view apprenticeships as offering certainty that all workers have the same high level of expertise and ensuring an adequate supply of well-trained workers to cover sudden increases in demand and to fill leadership positions.
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  • The labor market in Austria, 2000–2016

    Fifteen years ago Austria was the “better Germany,” but it has failed to keep up over time

    René Böheim, December 2017
    Austria is an interesting economy due to its strong industrial relations with institutionalized collective bargaining over wage negotiations and working conditions. Currently, Austria’s GDP per capita is high, but unemployment, although comparably low on an international scale, is not declining in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The labor market is also characterized by an increasing share of mostly low-skilled foreign workers. High marginal labor taxes discourage low-skilled workers from leaving social assistance.
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