This nationwide survey provides the first detailed data on training activities in small and large firms gathered in more than a decade. Conn. The focus of the survey was the training experience of workers hired in the previous three months. Current and future employer needs for different types of worker skills were surveyed, as well as the length of time needed for new workers to become fully trained and qualified. The study also investigated whether firms provided remedial training or used government training programs. Highlights Small firms appear to provide general workplace training.
Large firms specialize in providing firm-specific training.
Small firms provide fewer total hours of training to new hires in the first three months of employment than do large firms. Small firms, however, provide more training to new employees with less than 12 years of schooling, and a comparable amount of training to new hires with no previous work experience. Compared with firms with 500 or more employees, firms with fewer than 25 employees provide more than twice as many hours of informal management training to employees with less than a high school diploma. These results are consistent with earlier findings that small businesses hire less educated and inexperienced more workers and provide them with general skills and training. The amount of training provided to less educated and more inexperienced workers does not increase with firm size because larger firms appear to prefer hiring and providing firm-specific training to more experienced and educated workers.