How can today's workforce keep pace with an increasingly competitive
global economy? As new technologies rapidly transform the workplace,
employee requirements are changing and workers must adapt to different
working conditions. This volume compares new evidence on the returns
from worker training in the United States, Germany, France, Britain,
Japan, Norway, and the Netherlands.
The authors focus on Germany's widespread, formal apprenticeship
programs; the U.S. system of learning-by-doing; Japan's low employee
turnover and extensive company training; and Britain's government-led
and school-based training schemes. The evidence shows that, overall,
training in the workplace is more effective than training in schools.
Moreover, even when U.S. firms spend as much on training as other
countries do, their employees may still be less skilled than workers in
Europe or Japan.
Training and the Private Sector points to training programs in
Germany, Japan, and other developed countries as models for creating a
workforce in the United States that can compete more successfully in
today's economy.