Why Some Firms Train Apprentices and Many Others Do Not
24 Pages Posted: 25 Nov 2003
Date Written: October 2003
Abstract
The latest study investigating the cost-benefit ratio of apprenticeship training for Swiss companies has shown that most apprentices offset the cost of their training during their apprenticeship on the basis of the productive contribution of the work they perform. Given this outcome, it is worth investigating why so many firms choose not to train apprentices. Maximum likelihood selection models were used to estimate the net cost of training for firms without an apprenticeship programme. The models show, firstly, that non-training firms would incur significantly higher net cost during the apprenticeship period if they would switch to a training policy and secondly, that this less favourable cost-benefit ratio is determined less by cost than by absence of benefit. For the apprenticeship system as such the results indicate, that as long as training regulations and the market situation permit a cost effective training of apprentices, companies do not need specific labour market regulations or institutions to offer training posts. In this respect, the Swiss findings might be of interest for the on-going German discussion about the expected repercussions of a more general labour market deregulation on the apprenticeship training system.
Keywords: apprenticeship training, firm-sponsored training, cost-benefit analysis
JEL Classification: J24, J31, J44
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Private Sector Training and its Impact on the Earnings of Young Workers
-
The Impact of Training on Productivity and Wages: Evidence from British Panel Data
By Lorraine Dearden, Howard Reed, ...
-
Minimum Wages and Training Revisited
By David Neumark and William Wascher
-
Is the German Apprenticeship System a Panacea for the Us Labour Market?
By Dietmar Harhoff and Thomas J. Kane
-
Beyond the Incidence of Training: Evidence from a National Employers Survey
By Lisa M. Lynch and Sandra E. Black