Approaches to measuring and understanding employer training expenditure

The project reported here explored ways in which information on employer expenditure on training has been gathered and how it could be improved. It involved interviews with experts and stakeholders and case studies of firms in four industries: construction, retail trade, manufacturing, and health and community services. As well, Australian and international surveys related to employers and employer expenditure were examined. The case studies confirmed that it was difficult for most organisations to answer the quantitative questions on expenditure asked in the survey. The case studies...  [+] Show more

The project reported here explored ways in which information on employer expenditure on training has been gathered and how it could be improved. It involved interviews with experts and stakeholders and case studies of firms in four industries: construction, retail trade, manufacturing, and health and community services. As well, Australian and international surveys related to employers and employer expenditure were examined. The case studies confirmed that it was difficult for most organisations to answer the quantitative questions on expenditure asked in the survey. The case studies also indicated a high level of variation in training expenditure between employers, even in the same sector. Size was a factor, but often smaller employers outspend larger employers per employee. The case studies illustrated the spread of nationally recognised training, especially among larger organisations. Support from government funding (for example, for apprentices) led to an emphasis on the training of younger entrants, but the importance of training existing workers was stressed by many participants in the interviews and case studies. However, the lack of training records and data on training expenditure maintained by the case study organisations made it difficult for the research team to assess the relative amounts of expenditure on training across different groups in the workforce.