Company further training activities in western and eastern Germany : theoretical and empirical analysis using the data from the 1997 IAB establishment panel

Abstract

"In the 'further training' survey focus of the 1997 IAB establishment panel information was collected concerning the distribution and extent of various forms of company training, the participation of individual groups of workers as well as reasons for a lack of further training. The empirical findings for western and eastern Germany can be placed here in the context of company investment and employment policies. In the first half of 1997 almost four out of ten companies in Germany ran their own further training measures or were involved in the financing of such measures. As a result of benefit calculations by the players involved and other alternative possibilities of meeting the qualification requirements, further training activities in companies are still not a matter of course. This report therefore examines what factors determine the supply of company further training and the extent of participation in further training by those employed in the company. Selected explanatory approaches are discussed, such as the human capital and transaction cost theories as well as the influence of innovations in the areas of technological organisation on company further training behaviour. For the empirical analysis special, separate terms of reference are suggested: the possible influence of 'personnel structure variables' is substantiated from human capital theory. From the viewpoint of technological organisation, in particular the 'modernity of the company' and the availability of resources are important. Influences of the company labour demand as well as the context of industrial relations are taken into account. In addition to descriptive analyses on the distribution and the participation rates of the company further training, the findings of probit and tobit estimates on the empirical relevance of influential and contextual factors are presented. Relevant influences of personnel structure and of technological organisation requirements can be confirmed in particular in the multivariate estimates which were carried out for western and eastern Germany as well as for individual sectors of the economy." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Düll, H. & Bellmann, L. (1998): Betriebliche Weiterbildungsaktivitäten in West- und Ostdeutschland. Eine theoretische und empirische Analyse mit den Daten des IAB-Betriebspanels 1997. In: Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Vol. 31, No. 2, p. 205-225.