4.39 Training

This section reviews and describes the core data collections and year-by-year variations present within the NLSY79 training sections. Descriptive tables present the number of respondents participating in various types of training programs by survey year. Summary variable tables for the NLSY79 provide details on the types of training programs and training providers about which data have been collected across surveys.

Users should keep in mind that these data provide only a partial picture of the entire training investments of an individual. A fundamental concern of the Employment and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor, which funded the 1979–86 rounds of the NLSY79, was the efficacy of various federally funded employment and training programs in helping youths to acquire skills and secure employment. The 1979–86 “Other Training” sections of the questionnaire supplemented data collected in three other core question series: (1) “On Jobs,” which gathered detailed information on government jobs and associated training; (2) “Government Training,” which highlights other opportunities in which respondents participated over and above those reported in the “On Jobs” section; and (3) “Military,” in which data on formal and on-the-job training for military jobs were collected. In 1987, when funding of the NLS shifted to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the collection of extensive information on government jobs and training information ceased and the “Other Training” section of the questionnaire was restructured. 

In addition to these regularly fielded series, special data collections that focused on high school courses, degrees and certifications, and time use provide supplementary information on NLSY79 respondents' training investments. The "Government Training & Jobs Programs," "Educational Attainment & School Enrollment," and "School & Transcript Surveys" sections of this guide review some of these additional variables.

Core Data Collection: In general, the “Training” and/or “Other Training” sections of each NLSY79 questionnaire (1) collect information on each respondent’s participation since the date of the last interview in three (or more) training programs and (2) confirm and update information on two (or more) training programs in which he or she was enrolled on the date of last interview. For each program, a core set of variables is collected on the type of provider offering the training, start and stop dates (i.e., month and year), whether the training was completed, and the number of hours per week usually spent in each training program (Table 4.39.1).

Table 4.39.1 Core Data Collection: NLSY79 Training 1979-86 and 1988-2004

Below is a discussion of the variations present in the regular fieldings of the “Other Training” and/or “Training” sections of the 1979–2004 questionnaires, followed by an overview of types of training providers and the primary types of training about which data have been collected within the following five sections of the NLSY79 questionnaire: “Other Training,” “Training,” “Jobs,” “Government Training,” and “Military.”

Year-by-Year Variations: During the 1979–86 surveys, the focus of the NLSY79 training data collection was on the types of formal training programs in which a respondent was enrolled other than those already reported in the previously administered jobs, government training, military, and regular schooling sections of the questionnaire. After 1987, the series of questions concerning government-sponsored training was no longer fielded and the “Other Training” section was renamed “Training.” The types of information collected for the 1979–86 and 1988–2004 survey years differ; each is discussed separately below.  

Data collection during the 1979–86 interviews was limited to only those training programs in which the respondent had been enrolled for one month or more. Specific information on the occupation for which the respondent was being trained was also gathered in these years. In addition to the core sets of variables described above, the 1979 questionnaire included the following sets of questions: (1) retrospective questions on up to three training programs in which the respondent had participated before 1978 and on up to four other types of training in which he or she had ever participated and (2) information on the activities of the respondent during the summer of 1978, e.g., worked at a regular job, at an odd job, was on vacation, participated in a training program, or was enrolled in regular school. Included within the 1979 and 1980 training sections was a series of questions on the types of degrees and/or certifications that the respondent had ever received or received since the last interview. Age restrictions during the 1979 and 1980 interviews limited the administration of these other training questions to respondents who were 16 years of age and older. The supplemental 1981 “Time Use - Time Spent in Other Training” section gathered, from those who had been enrolled during the past seven days in a training program, information on the type of training provider and the hours spent at the training school.

The 1982–84 questionnaires included an expanded series detailing (1) the firm specificity of each training program, i.e., whether a respondent had enrolled in a given occupational training in order to qualify for a specific job at a specific firm; (2) the involvement, if any, of the respondent’s employer in encouraging or requiring the training and whether the training took place during regular work hours; (3) the source of money to pay for the training, e.g., employer, self, friends, government, or bank, with a distinction made between outright grants and loans; (4) the relationship to the respondent of those persons who encouraged enrollment in the training, e.g., friend, relative, employer (former or prospective), job counselor, teacher, etc.; and (5) the primary reason the respondent enrolled in the specific occupational training program, e.g., jobs are plentiful, pay is high, program sounded interesting, or [the training] related to the job at the time.

Because the 1987 survey was conducted mainly by telephone, the interview was abbreviated and only one question was asked about training. In this survey, respondents simply reported whether any training or assistance had been received from any government-sponsored program.

The 1988–92 series dropped the one month training duration limitation, the question that specified the job or occupation for which the respondent was being trained, and some of the provider types, e.g., barber/beauty school, flight school, and nurses program, that had been coding categories since 1979. The 1988 reference period was the last two years; other surveys referred to only the period since last interview. Company training programs run by the employer were differentiated from those conducted at the work place by someone other than the employer and those that took place outside of work. The number of training programs for which data were released was expanded to four. New questions included who paid for or sponsored each training program, whether the training was used on the respondent’s current/most recent job, whether the training resulted in the respondent getting a different job, and the type of training that had been provided, e.g., skilled classroom training, basic/remedial skill training, on-the-job training, work experience, etc. Definitions of each training type and of some of the providers offering such training, drawn from the 1991 NLSY79 Question by Question Specifications, are listed in Table 4.39.2. Table 4.39.3 presents, by survey year, gender, and race/ethnicity, the number of respondents enrolled in the six types of training programs for which data were collected during the 1988–94 interviews.

Beginning in 1990, two questions were added on the relationship of each training program to the respondent’s promotion possibilities, i.e., was the training necessary to get a promotion and did it assist the respondent in obtaining a promotion. Information was collected beginning in 1991 on the primary reason the respondent enrolled in the training program (this question had been taken out after 1984 but was returned to the survey in 1991), the specific employer who sponsored the training, and whether a guaranteed student loan was used to pay for the training.

Table 4.39.2 Training & Training Providers: Definitions from the NLSY79 Question-by-Question Specifications (1991)

The 1993 series of training questions included the collection of information on (1) up to six training programs in which the respondent was enrolled since last interview and (2) up to four in which he or she was participating as of the last interview date. For those respondents who were enrolled at either point in time in a training program sponsored by an employer, a new question elicited information on whether the respondent had to be working for that employer for a period of time before training was made available.

Those enrolled in any training program were asked a series of (1) skill transferability questions, i.e., the amount of skills learned in each training program that the respondent thought would be useful in doing a different kind of work for the (same) employer or in doing the same kind of work for a different employer and (2) high school course relevancy questions, i.e., whether the skills learned in this training program added to those acquired in high school courses in which the respondent had enrolled and, for those who did not take such high school courses, how much of what was learned in the training program could have been learned in high school.

Table 4.39.3 Number of Respondents Participating in Training by Survey Year,
Type of Training, Gender, and Race/Ethnicity: NLSY79 1988-94

In addition to this expanded set of questions on formal training experiences of NLSY79 respondents, the 1993 survey collected, for the first time, information on informal training opportunities. Those respondents with a current (or most recent) civilian job were asked a series of questions designed to tap the methods used to either learn their job and/or to upgrade skills required on that job.

Those respondents with a CPS employer who had implemented workplace changes in the past 12 months that necessitated the learning of new job skills were asked for information on (1) the type(s) of changes, e.g., a new product/service/equipment was introduced; an upgrade of employee’s basic skills or computer skills was needed; employer policies regarding safety, compensation, or benefits were changed; etc.; (2) whether the training was acquired from (not already reported) classes/seminars, supervisors, coworkers, self-study, or some other means reported by the respondent; and (3) for each training mode, the number of weeks and hours per week spent in such training and the degree to which respondents thought skills learned in each program would be useful in doing a different kind of work for the (same) employer or in doing the same kind of work for a different employer. Respondents with a CPS employer who reported that they were not able to perform 100 percent of their current job duties at the time they first started doing the job were asked the same set of training and skill transferability questions listed above. Loewenstein and Spletzer (1994) review training questions in the 1993 NLSY79 and other data sets, including the 1991 CPS, the 1986 NLS of the High School Class of ‘72, and the Employment Opportunity Pilot Project, and present some initial findings from the 1993 NLSY79.

Types of Training Providers: Information has been collected during all survey years on the type of organization providing the training in which NLSY79 respondents participated. Provider types for which data have been consistently gathered across survey years include company training, business school, vocational/technical institute, and apprenticeship program. Questions fielded during select survey years specified other training providers such as nurses program, barber/beauty school, flight school, seminars or training programs at work/outside of work, and vocational rehabilitation center. Table 4.39.4 lists those types of training providers that appear as coding categories in the 1979–93 “Other Training/Training” sections of the questionnaire. Users should note that names of identical and additional agencies can be found in (1) the 1979–87 government training and jobs programs questions; (2) the 1979 degrees and certifications data collection; and (3) the 1980 time use in “other training” series. Table 4.39.5 presents, by survey and gender, the number of respondents attending programs offered by these training providers.

Types of Skill Training Across Questionnaire Sections: Comparable types of training data collected within various sections of the questionnaire, i.e., the “Government Training,” “Jobs,” “Military,” “Training,” or “Other Training” sections, have been grouped together in Table 4.39.6. Variables represented in the table include those that have the following types of training represented either within their variable title or as a coding category: basic skill training, occupational skill training (classroom), occupational skill training (on-the-job), or occupational skill training (apprenticeship program). Questions on employer-specific training were fielded during select survey years and are also included in Table 4.39.6. Variables dealing with participation in programs called “work experience” are excluded since the focus of such activities is the development of good work habits and not the acquisition of basic or occupational skills.

Table 4.39.4 Types of Training Providers Identified in the "Other Training"
& "Training" Sections of the NLSY79 Questionnaire: 1979-2004

Table 4.39.5 Number of Respondents Participating in Training Programs
by Survey Year, Type of Program, and Gender: NLSY79 1979-2004