Work-related training

Lifelong learning has become a virtual career necessity. In nearly all industries, technological change is placing an ever-higher value on skills. This often requires some kind of training, whether it be learning to run a machine processing oil sands or to use software analyzing investments.

Not all pressures to train come from the employer - employees have their own objectives and motivations to pursue job-related training. The motivation may be to keep a job, get a promotion, or land a position with another employer. It is also linked to higher income (Hum and Simpson 2001, Lynch 1997). For example, an electrical engineer may take a course in a new computer system for power consumption management to gain increased responsibilities, an improved resume, and hopefully a promotion. Non-economic reasons such as intellectual challenge or the excitement of learning something new also come into play.

Using the Adult Education and Training Survey (AETS), this article looks at how participation in job-related courses changed from 1993 to 2002 across a number of social and demographic characteristics. In particular, the factors affecting employer-supported training as well as training that is not employer supported are explored. Tabulations are complemented by a multivariate analysis.

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