Changes in the incidence and determinants of employer-funded training in Britain, 1984-1994

Given the current political and economic importance attributed to private sector training for increasing the skills and productivity of the workforce, this thesis has examined, for the first time, how the determinants of employer-funded training changed for male and female full-time employees in Britain over the decade 1984 to 1994. A related objective, which investigates the importance of personal characteristics, is to determine whether or not an employer-funded training differential exists between white and non-white, male and female, full-time employees in the British labour market. In order to investigate these issues we use data from the Labour Force Survey and Quarterly Labour Survey, and it is important to note that these are the only sources of data in Britain which allow this to be undertaken.;Using logistic models and time-wise decomposition techniques we find that age, highest qualification, firm size and industry are consistently important factors determining training participation. Decomposition results suggest that the growth in employer-funded training between 1984 and 1989 was principally the result of increased demand for training and skilled labour by workers and firms, whilst the growth between 1989 and 1994 was due to the general improvement in the qualification base of workers rather than changes in the age or industry structures. These findings suggest that one key to increased training participation at the workplace is the continued reduction in the numbers of youngsters leaving school with low level or no qualifications. A separate analysis of the manufacturing sector confirmed these results.;We find that non-white employees in Britain are disadvantaged in access to employer-funded training compared to their white counterparts. As such, non-whites are estimated to receive only about one-half of the training received by whites. We have argued that this could lead to future labour market disadvantage in terms of reduced promotion opportunities and wages.