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As the United States adapts to a more competitive global marketplace, education and training are increasingly seen as vital, both as part of any national economic strategy and as a mechanism to help assure individuals’ economic well being. A growing consensus suggests that education and training should not be limited solely to an intensive period prior to entrance into the labour force, but should be undertaken regularly throughout workers’ careers. While many business leaders, analysts, and policymakers profess a need to invest more in the continuing education and training of workers, knowledge about the importance of such investments and the relative value of various types of such learning is not well-formed. This paper aims to improve understanding of the importance of continuing education and job training and identifies trends in the patterns and value of training during the past three decades. Using the National Longitudinal Surveys from 1966 to 1981 and the comparable National Longitudinal Survey of the Labor Market Experiences of Youth from 1979 to 1994 (NLS, collectively), the author aims to determine whether data substantiates or refutes the general belief that more training would improve the strategic economic position of the US and the prospects of individual workers. This paper also provides a more detailed consideration of recent trends in both the access to and value of training, focusing on certain types of training. It assesses trends in access to valuable training among groups of workers with different levels of education. To understand whether training might help reverse the declining economic fortunes of workers with limited formal schooling, it is important to determine whether less educated workers are increasingly missing out on valuable training opportunities.