Continuous Training in Germany

Using data from the German Socio Economic Panel, I describe the incidence, attributes, and outcomes of continuous training received by workers in Germany between 1986 and 1989. Further training is primarily a white collar phenomenon, is concentrated among the more highly educated, and in the service sector and in public administration. Much of this training seems to be general and provided to workers by their employers at no direct cost. On the other hand, the training also does not seem to result in large short-run wage gains, especially for men. These results are somewhat at odds with the conventional models about the financing of human capital formation.