Training

• Included a series of questions (1979 and 1980) on the types of degrees or certifications that the respondent had ever received or received since the last interview. Age restrictions during the interviews limited the administration of these other training questions to respondents who were 16 years of age and older.
• Data collection (1979-1986) during the 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: 
  • 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
  • information on the activities of the respondent during the summer of 1978, such as that he or she worked at a regular job or an odd job, was on vacation, participated in a training program, or was enrolled in regular school.

  The "Government Training" sections collected three sets of information.
  First: Asked those respondents not enrolled in school for information on other government training programs in which they had been enrolled and which were not already reported within the "On Jobs" section.
  Second: Retrospective information on up to five government-sponsored training programs in which respondents were enrolled prior to January 1, 1978, was collected during the 1979 survey. Included are the name of the government program (such as MDTA/CETA/JTPA, Job Corps, RTP Apprenticeship Program, Opportunities Industrialization Centers, Jobs for Progress, Urban League, Vocational Rehabilitation), the 3-digit Census occupational training category, whether the respondent completed the training program, and in what year the respondent left the program.
  Third: Information on up to two government-sponsored training programs in which a respondent was enrolled since 1978 or since the last interview was collected during the 1979-86 interviews. This series of questions was restricted during the 1979-83 interviews to respondents who were not enrolled in regular schooling (grades 1-12). Included is information on the name of the government program; the date participation ended; hours per week/per day of participation; current enrollment status; periods of nonparticipation lasting a week or more; whether the program was part of a CETA, JTPA, or WIN-affiliated program; reasons for entering/leaving each program; types of training services provided (job counseling, GED preparation, classroom training, English as a second language, skills training, and so forth.); Census occupational or OJT training category; type of subsidized (OJT, work experience, or CETA/PSE) or unsubsidized job placement; types of supportive services received (childcare, transportation, health care, college preparation, and so forth); income/rate of pay received during participation; and attitudes toward specific aspects of the training program.

• The "On Jobs" section questionnaires (1979-1987), in conjunction with the yearly Employer Supplement, collected detailed information on all jobs reported by the respondent since January 1978 (for the 1979 survey) or since the last interview (for subsequent surveys).  For each job identified as a government job, information was gathered from the respondent on the names of the government-operated job programs, whether the program was part of a CETA/JTPA or WIN program, the reason the respondent entered this program, the kinds of services provided (job counseling, GED preparation, on-the-job training [OJT], classroom training for basic skills [reading-writing-arithmetic], or occupational skills training), whether the respondent had been placed in either subsidized or unsubsidized employment, the types of supportive services such as childcare or health care provided, and the respondent's attitudes toward the program. The 1979 questionnaire contained a supplementary section, which collected information on whether respondents age 16 and over had participated in a government-sponsored, in-school, or summer jobs program prior to January 1978. 

• the firm specificity of each training program, that is, whether a respondent had enrolled in a given occupational training in order to qualify for a specific job at a specific firm
• 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
• the source of money to pay for the training, such as employer, self, friends, government, or bank, with a distinction made between outright grants and loans
• the relationship to the respondent of those persons who encouraged enrollment in the training, such as friend, relative, employer (former or prospective), job counselor, or teacher
• the primary reason the respondent enrolled in the specific occupational training program, for example, jobs are plentiful, pay is high, program sounded interesting, or (the training) related to the job at the time

• Government sponsorship of a training program (1988-1992) was incorporated within the regularly asked "Other Training" questions beginning in 1988. All respondents continued to be asked for information on multiple training programs in which they were enrolled since the last interview. Questions differentiated between where respondents received their training (such as through an apprenticeship program, a business school, a vocational institute or vocational rehabilitation center) and who or what organization paid for the training program (such as self, employer, JTPA, TAA, Job Corps, WIN, the Veteran's Administration, Vocational Rehabilitation, and so forth). Information was collected for each training program on dates of participation, total weeks enrolled, whether the respondent completed the program, whether the training was used on their most current job or helped the respondent obtain a different job, hours/week spent in training, and type of training program (occupational skills training, classroom training for basic skills, on-the-job training, job search assistance, or work experience).
• The 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, such as 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, such as skilled classroom training, basic/remedial skill training, on-the-job training, or work experience. 

• 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 2. 

• up to six training programs in which the respondent was enrolled since last interview
• 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:

• skill transferability questions, that is, 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
• high school course relevancy questions, that is, 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

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 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:

• the type(s) of changes, such as a new product, service, or equipment was introduced; an upgrade of employee's basic skills or computer skills was needed; employer policies regarding safety, compensation, or benefits were changed
• whether the training was acquired from (not already reported) classes/seminars, supervisors, coworkers, self-study, or some other means reported by the respondent
• 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.