Training

Education, Training & Achievement Scores
Training
Important Information About Using Training Data
- To some extent, types of training and training providers are respondent-defined. Universes for the various sets of training and provider variables differ and there is not always a clear distinction between types of training or types of providers or services. The wording of some questions, for example, combines more specific on-the-job training with general work experience. Similarly, the training category "on-the-job training" can be a type of vocational/technical program, a service provided in conjunction with either a government job or a government training program, or a type of training for a military job.
- For a full picture of government-sponsored jobs and associated training variables available for the NLSY79 refer to the "On Jobs" section of the 1979-87 questionnaires; the accompanying Employer Supplements, which collected information on all jobs held by the respondent (including but not limited to government-sponsored jobs); and the 1979-86 "Government Training" sections, which 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.
- The sources of Federal funding and types of service providers reported by participants did not always keep pace with legislative reality. Participation in defunct Federal programs was reported as late as 1985 for MDTA and 1986 for CETA. Although JTPA funding of local programs occurred as early as 1983-84, JTPA as a category in the government-sponsor questions is presumably included under 'Other' and appears as a coding category within the 'Part of CETA/JTPA or WIN' questions beginning in 1986. Finally, although Federally funded, these jobs programs were locally operated under a variety of names; appropriate Federal funding sources may or may not have been known to the recipient.
- The wording of questions on job placement within the Employer Supplements and the "Government Training" sections of the questionnaires changed beginning with the 1984 survey. Prior to 1984, a question on whether the government training program in which the respondent had participated had placed the respondent in a job "outside" the program was followed by a question on whether that outside job placement had occurred to a CETA or PSE (Public Service Employment) job and, if so, whether that subsidized job had been followed by another (presumably) unsubsidized job placement. Beginning with the 1984 survey and the enactment of JTPA, this rather complex series of questions was dropped and only two questions were asked:
- whether respondents had been placed, as part of their training, in a subsidized on-the-job training (OJT) or work experience slot and
- whether respondents had been placed in a job by the program after completion of training.
Information has been collected during all survey years on the type of organization providing the training in which NLSY79 respondents participated. In addition to regularly fielded general training questions, special data collections focused on:
- government training administered in the early years of the NLSY79
- high school courses
- degrees and certifications
- and time use provide supplementary information on NLSY79 respondents' training investments
In general, the "Training" or "Other Training" sections of each NLSY79 questionnaire:
- collect information on each respondent's participation since the date of the last interview in three (or more) training programs
- confirm and update information on two (or more) training programs in which he or she was enrolled on the date of last interview
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. The names of identical and additional agencies can be found in the:
- 1979-87 government training and jobs programs questions
- 1979 degrees and certifications data collection
- 1980 time use in "other training" series
Data on government training was collected from 1979 through the mid-1980s for NLSY79 respondents. The primary concern of NLSY79 questions was whether jobs held by the respondent had been obtained through a program funded by the government. The survey also explored whether training and supportive services had been provided. In general, information was gathered on:
- enrollment patterns
- program sponsorship
- types of training
- supportive services
- job placement services provided
Related Variables: The Educational Attainment & School Enrollment and School & Transcript Surveys sections of this guide review some additional and related variables.
Core Data Collection
For each program, a core set of variables is collected on the type of provider offering the training, start and stop dates (month and year), whether the training was completed, and the number of hours per week usually spent in each training program. Variables include:
- 'Any Vocational/Technical Training Enrolled'1
- 'Attended Vocational/Technical Program or On-the-Job Training'
- 'Type of School or Vocational/Technical Program Enrolled In'
- 'Month/Year Began'
- 'Month/Year Completed/Left'
- 'Completed Vocational/Technical Program Enrolled In'
- 'Hours Per Week Spent at Vocational/Technical Program Taken'
1 Note that the 1979-86 data collections asked only about training programs in which the respondent had been enrolled for more than one month.
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 all years of the survey differ and are discussed below (Table 1.)
Table 1. Year-by-Year Variations in Training Data Collection
Year(s) | Training data collected |
Beginning in 1979 |
|
Beginning in 1982 | Questionnaires (1982-1984) included an expanded series detailing:
|
1987 | Respondents reported whether any training or assistance had been received from any government-sponsored program. |
Beginning in 1988 |
|
Beginning in 1990 | Two questions (1990-1994) were added on the relationship of each training program to the respondent's promotion possibilities, that is, 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. |
1993 | The 1993 series of training questions included the collection of information on:
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:
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:
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. |
Table 2. Definitions of Training and Training Providers: Definitions from the NLSY79 Question-by-Question Specifications. (1991)
Apprenticeship Program: A formal program in which a person agrees to work in return for wages and training in a skilled trade or art for a prescribed period of time. |