Financing Adult Education for Employment

Abstract

This chapter highlights financing adult education for employment. Vocational and industrial education and training takes many forms. In the past, the bulk of all vocational and industrial education was provided on the job by employers for their own workers. The costs of this education and training were shared between the employers, who provided personnel, equipment, and other facilities, and the trainees, who accepted low wages during the period of training. Vocational schools were established, and new types of combined on-the-job and off-the-job training were created. It is difficult to estimate the total costs of vocational education and industrial training, because employers do not necessarily keep accurate records of the time or expenditure devoted to on-the-job training, and it is difficult to estimate the contribution of individual trainees, because this would require estimates of the value of their productive work and the distribution of their time between learning and producing. However, there are many practical and conceptual difficulties involved in estimating the total costs of vocational education and industrial training.