THE DETERMINANTS OF TRAINING OF MALE AND FEMALE EMPLOYEES IN BRITAIN*
| Published date | 01 February 1993 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0084.1993.mp55001006.x |
| Author | Francis Green |
| Date | 01 February 1993 |
OXFORD BULLETIN OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS, 55,1(1993)
0305-9049 S3.00
THE DETERMINANTS OF TRAINING OF MALE
AND FEMAT E EMPLOYEES iN BRITAIN*
Francis Green
I. INTRODUCTION
For some time now, the reform and expansion of training and education in
Britain has been placed high on the political agenda. This imperative derives
from the recognition that skill levels are relatively low overall in the British
workforce and that this is a probable contributory factor to Britain's poor
long-term economic performance There is, accordingly, increasing interest
in knowing who gains access to training and education, and in estimating how
much is the economic reward to them and to society. Where large amounts of
public funding are at stake, it is more than useful to know where it should best
be spent.
We have at hand, in human capital theory, a ready-made model of who is
likely to demand and to be provided with training. This model suggests that
training decisions are like other investments: they respond to economic
incentives. Training would thus be expanded up until the point where the net
present value of training projects is zero. Hence it is predicted that, ceteris
paribus, training is more likely to occur (a) where an individual is young (since
this gives a greater expected post-training period of working life); (b) where
the individual already has good educational qualifications (this may be inter-
preted plausibly as raising 'trainability' or, alternatively, as lowering the
'psychic' costs of training); (e) in expanding industries or industries with
greater technological change; (d) where the individual is regarded, rightly or
wrongly, as more committed to paid labour (bereft, for example, of family
caring responsibilities); (e) in larger firms, where the company can both reap
economies of scale in training provision and be more certain of retaining the
trainee; (f) in occupations where the labour process is more subject to change,
mainly higher-level occupations; (g) in the public sector, since private profit-
*This research was supported by ESRC Grant Number R000232636. The author is
extremely grateful to Johnny Sung for his excellent research assistance. Material from the 1987
General Household Survey made available through the OPCS and the ESRC Data Archive has
been used by permission of the Controller of HM Stationary Office. An earlier version of the
paper was presented to the International Conference on the Economics of Training, Cardiff
Business School, September 1989.
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maximizing firms are more likely than public employers to be inhibited by the
fear of poaching; (h) for individuals who have been recently recruited to a
new job.
Earlier empirical studies have thrown some light on some of these matters
(see Table 1). There is, to start with, a consensus that training decreases,
ceteris pari bus, with age. Other predictions of the human capital model also
TABLE 1
British Studies of the Determinants of Training
Greenhalgh and Stewart (1987) National Training Survey (1975)
Rigg (1989) Training in Britain, Survey of
Individuals, Summer (1987)
Booth (1990) Survey of Graduates and Diplomats
(1980)
Booth (1991) British Social Attitudes Survey (1987)
Green (1 99 la) Labour Force Survey (1984)
Allen, McConnick and O'Brien (1991) Sample of unemployed in Sunderland
(1986)
Hypothesis Studies confirming it
Studies Data set
Training decreases with age For males or for both sexes together: all
For females: (1) and (4) confirm; (3) and
(5) show insignificant effect
Higher-level qualifications raise (1), (2), (4), (5) and (6)
training probability
(e) Growing or changing technology (6). Others show no consistent pattern
industries raise training
Caring for children reduces training (1), (4), (5). (3) shows no effect
probability
Larger establishments do more training (2), (3), (4) and (5)
Higher-level occupations require more (1), (2) and (5)
retraining
Training is greater in the public sector (4)
Recent recruits to new jobs need (2) and (5)
training
(j) Sex discrimination over training access (1), (3), (4) and (5)
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