We use unique workplace and employee-level data to evaluate a major UK government pilot programme aimed at increasing qualification-based employer-provided training for low-qualified employees. We evaluate the programme’s effect on the take-up of training among eligible employers and employees in a natural experiment setting, and study how the take-up varies depending on the incentives offered to the employers and on the time off the job for training received by the employees. To this end, we compare changes in receipt and provision of training across similar low-qualified employees and workplaces employing such individuals, in pilot areas and a set of comparable control areas, from before to after the implementation of the programme. We use rich information on training activity from specially commissioned surveys of eligible employers and employees collected one year before and in the two years after the beginning of the pilot. We estimate that around 8 percent of eligible employers would have provided qualification-based training to their eligible employees in the absence of the programme, and that the early impact of the pilot was to increase this proportion by less than one percentage point. This translates into only 10 to 15 percent of the training provided under the programme being additional. Our results for training provision by employers are re-enforced by our findings on receipt of training by low-qualified employees. Together, these findings suggest that improving the additionality of the national programme is crucial if it is to make a significant contribution towards UK government targets to increase qualification levels among this section of the workforce.
Providing Employers with Incentives to Train Low-Skilled Workers: Evidence from the UK Employer Training Pilots
Battistin, Erich;
2011-01-01
Abstract
We use unique workplace and employee-level data to evaluate a major UK government pilot programme aimed at increasing qualification-based employer-provided training for low-qualified employees. We evaluate the programme’s effect on the take-up of training among eligible employers and employees in a natural experiment setting, and study how the take-up varies depending on the incentives offered to the employers and on the time off the job for training received by the employees. To this end, we compare changes in receipt and provision of training across similar low-qualified employees and workplaces employing such individuals, in pilot areas and a set of comparable control areas, from before to after the implementation of the programme. We use rich information on training activity from specially commissioned surveys of eligible employers and employees collected one year before and in the two years after the beginning of the pilot. We estimate that around 8 percent of eligible employers would have provided qualification-based training to their eligible employees in the absence of the programme, and that the early impact of the pilot was to increase this proportion by less than one percentage point. This translates into only 10 to 15 percent of the training provided under the programme being additional. Our results for training provision by employers are re-enforced by our findings on receipt of training by low-qualified employees. Together, these findings suggest that improving the additionality of the national programme is crucial if it is to make a significant contribution towards UK government targets to increase qualification levels among this section of the workforce.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
