Training Occupations Research Articles

Training participation of internationalized firms: establishment-level evidence for Switzerland

BackgroundSwitzerland is host to many international companies, and a large share of Swiss firms is exporting goods and services abroad. While the vocational education and training (VET) system in Switzerland has a long tradition, there is a paucity of studies investigating the effects of the ongoing internationalization on the training participation of internationalized firms.MethodsThe empirical analysis uses representative cross-sectional survey data for Switzerland to estimate a firm’s training decision in 2009. I apply multivariate regression techniques to account for observable differences between domestic and internationalized firms.ResultsThe results show that small and internationalized firms with less than 50 employees have a significantly lower training probability than comparable domestic firms, while this is not the case for larger firms – mainly because internationalized firms are too specialized and provide internal training to workers without a VET degree. Relating the results to the theory of the varieties of capitalism, I find no statistically significant differences in the training participation of similar-sized firms with headquarters in typical liberal market economies (United States, United Kingdom) and a coordinated market economy (Germany), stressing the importance of other factors such as location, sector, firm size, and the local labor market environment.ConclusionWhile large internationalized firms show a similar training participation as domestic firms, a large fraction of small and internationalized firms does not offer apprenticeships even though they are aware of a potentially suitable training occupation. Thus policies promoting alternative forms of training, such as training networks that facilitate access to apprenticeship training for small and specialized firms, may possibly increase the future training participation of internationalized firms.JEL-codesJ24; M51; M53

Gender differences in work-related asthma: surveillance data from California, Massachusetts, Michigan, and New Jersey, 1993–2008

ABSTRACTObjective: To characterize work-related asthma by gender. Methods: We analyzed state-based sentinel surveillance data on confirmed work-related asthma cases collected from California, Massachusetts, Michigan, and New Jersey during 1993–2008. We used Chi-square and Fisher’s Exact Test statistics to compare select characteristics between females and males. Results: Of the 8239 confirmed work-related asthma cases, 60% were female. When compared to males with work-related asthma, females with work-related asthma were more likely to be identified through workers’ compensation (14.8% versus 10.6%) and less likely to be identified through hospital data (14.2% versus 16.9%). Moreover, when compared to males, females were more likely to have work-aggravated asthma (24.4% versus 13.5%) and less likely to have new-onset asthma (48.0% versus 56.5%). Females were also more likely than males with work-related asthma to work in healthcare and social assistance (28.7% versus 5.2%), educational services (11.8% versus 4.2%), and retail trade (5.0% versus 3.9%) industries and in office and administrative support (20.0% versus 4.0%), healthcare practitioners and technical (13.4% versus 1.6%), and education training and library (6.2% versus 1.3%) occupations. Agent groups most frequently associated with work-related asthma were miscellaneous chemicals (20.3%), cleaning materials (15.3%), and indoor air pollutants (14.9%) in females and miscellaneous chemicals (15.7%), mineral and inorganic dusts (13.2%), and pyrolysis products (12.7%) in males. Conclusions: Among adults with work-related asthma, males and females differ in terms of workplace exposures, occupations, and industries. Physicians should consider these gender differences when diagnosing and treating asthma in working adults.

Precise Vehicle Location as a Fundamental Parameter for Intelligent Self-aware Rail-track Maintenance Systems

The rail industry in the UK is undergoing substantial changes in response to a modernisation vision for 2040. Development and implementation of these will lead to a highly automated and safe railway. Real-time regulation of traffic will optimise the performance of the network, with trains running in succession within an adjacent movable safety zone. Critically, maintenance will use intelligent trainborne and track-based systems. These will provide accurate and timely information for condition based intervention at precise track locations, reducing possession downtime and minimising the presence of workers in operating railways. Clearly, precise knowledge of trains’ real-time location is of paramount importance.The positional accuracy demand of the future railway is less than 2m. A critical consideration of this requirement is the capability to resolve train occupancy in adjacent tracks, with the highest degree of confidence. A finer resolution is required for locating faults such as damage or missing parts, precisely.Location of trains currently relies on track signalling technology. However, these systems mostly provide an indication of the presence of trains within discrete track sections. The standard Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), cannot precisely and reliably resolve location as required either.Within the context of the needs of the future railway, state of the art location technologies and systems were reviewed and critiqued. It was found that no current technology is able to resolve location as required. Uncertainty is a significant factor. A new integrated approach employing complimentary technologies and more efficient data fusion process, can potentially offer a more accurate and robust solution. Data fusion architectures enabling intelligent self-aware rail-track maintenance systems are proposed.

Using cell phone data to measure quality of service and passenger flows of Paris transit system

This paper shows that the particular conditions under which a cellular phone network is operated underground can make it possible to measure passenger flows in an underground transit system. With the help of the mobile network operator Orange, some experiments have been conducted in Paris underground transit system to assess the potential of this new kind of data for transportation studies. The results show that good estimates of dynamic quantities, such as travel times, train occupancy levels and origin–destination flows can be derived from cellular data. The travel times, train occupancy levels and origin–destination flows inferred from cellular data have been compared to direct field observations and Automatic Fare Collection data provided by the STIF (the public transport authority in the Paris metropolitan area). The quantities inferred from cellular data are shown to be consistent with those inferred from the other data sources.

Деятельностный подход в профессиональной адаптации

In presented paper the authors consider the process of fi rst-year students’ adaptation as higher school’s psychological and pedagogical problem. The paper authors identify such forms of activity approach as training (training occupations) and design activity qua optimization adaptation methods. Also in the paper the
 attention has been paid to an assessment of efficiency related to psychological and pedagogical work with first year students, in particular, to adaptation training.

Invest in the best or compensate the weak?

PurposeThe paper aims to test whether a firm's provision of training depends on the intake quality of trainees. While a firm may just treat each trainee equally, independent of his or her intake quality, firms may alternatively also provide more training to less able individuals or focus on the most able ones. The authors develop a theoretical framework that illustrates under what circumstances a firm chooses a particular training strategy.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses representative administrative survey data for more than 1,400 Swiss establishments. To test their theoretical predictions about a firm's training strategy, the authors apply multivariate and instrumental variable (IV) regression models. In addition, they use case study evidence from a large Swiss retailer, allowing them to analyze how different instructors in a specific firm react when confronted with apprentices of different intake qualities.FindingsThe authors find that a firm's training strategy depends on a trainee's intake quality and the expected net costs of a particular training occupation. Although firms generally provide less training to less qualified trainees, the authors find that a firm is willing to compensate low‐ability trainees with additional training when training is on average profitable in the short run.Practical implicationsWhen training regulations force firms to follow an investment‐oriented training strategy (net costs in the short run), then low‐ability trainees will not receive additional instruction time and the dropout risk increases.Social implicationsGenerating a regulatory framework that allows firms to achieve a net benefit from work‐based training is crucial for low‐ability trainees to have the opportunity to receive additional training investments that compensate for a lack of competences when training commences.Originality/valueThis paper provides novel and direct empirical evidence on how firms adjust their training provision when faced with heterogeneity in the ability of their trainees.

Untapped resources: Refugee employment experiences in Central North Carolina

The objective of this study was to elucidate a comprehensive understanding of the pre-migration expectations and current realities of refugees resettled in the United States (U.S). Employment expectations and the current work situations experienced by African refugee populations recently resettled in Greensboro, NC are examined. Ten French-speaking refugees of African descent who had resided in Central North Carolina for less than three years were selected to participate. A phenomenological approach was used; semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants in spring 2010. Interviews needing interpretation were translated throughout the course of the interview in real time. All interviews were transcribed verbatim or word for word. All participants expected to find work in their fields with relative ease, but were either unemployed or under-employed compared to their professional training and/or previous occupation in their country of origin at the time of their interview. Emergent themes from the interviews included financial stability, ease of finding work, identity concerns, English language comprehension, the economy, and navigating a new system. Refugees in this sample were not prepared for the challenges they encountered when searching for gainful employment. Their experiences appear to be common with available anecdotal evidence. Adjustments to the cultural orientation programs received prior to migration, and enhancements to social networks in addition to an increased focus on English language comprehension post-migration have the potential to positively impact employment outcomes for newly arrived refugees.

The Threat of Space: A Discussion between Bashir Makhoul and Gordon Hon

Bashir Makhoul and Gordon Hon are the artist and curator, respectively, of the installation Enter Ghost, Exit Ghost. Many of the ideas behind the work were developed in discussions between them and here they have formalized this process in a transcribed discussion conducted after the first manifestation of the piece in Beijing. They have also just completed work on a co-authored book on contemporary Palestinian art and they discuss the context of Enter Ghost, Exit Ghost specifically as a Palestinian artwork in China. They raise many of the issues that were discussed during its production, such as surveillance and the merging of virtual and real space in modern military and colonial conflict. They explore the notion of threat of space as manifested by surveillance, military training and colonial occupation.

What drives the intention of Bavarian crafts apprentices to change employer or occupation? An empirical study in the crafts sector

This paper combines several job related factors such as occupational enjoyment, job security, financial attractiveness, working conditions and social relations for the first time and estimates their impact on the intention of crafts apprentices to leave their training establishment or occupation. In contrast to previous analyses, we consider the dimension of the intended change by taking into account whether crafts apprentices intend to change establishment and/or occupation. We find that occupational enjoyment, regional proximity to the employer and job security are the most important drivers for the intention to stay with the training establishment. In contrast to other studies, monetary incentives do not drive the intention to leave the training establishment or occupation. Our results have far reaching implications for training establishments and institutions in the Bavarian crafts sector concerning incentive systems, initial screening of apprentices, further training as well as improvement of the image of the crafts sector to the public through crafts chambers.

Estimating the Quality of Service of Underground Transit Systems with Cellular Network Data

This paper shows that the particular conditions in which a cellular phone network is operated underground can make it capture a significant part of particular events like entries in tunnels. With the help of the mobile network operator Orange, some experiments have been conducted in Paris’ underground transit system. Results show that good estimates of dynamic quantities, such as travel time, passenger flow and train occupancy, can be derived from cellular data. Those estimates are used to compute two quality of service indicators: the interstation passenger density per train, and the passenger delay between an origin and a destination.

Specificity of occupational training and occupational mobility: an empirical study based on Lazear’s skill-weights approach

According to standard human capital theory, firm-financed training cannot be explained if the skills obtained are general in nature. Nevertheless, in German-speaking countries, firms invest heavily in apprenticeship training although the skills are assumed to be general. In our paper, we study the extent to which apprenticeship training is general at all and how specificity of training may be defined based on Lazear’s skill-weights approach. We build occupation-specific skill-weights and find that the more specific the skill portfolio in an occupation, the higher the net costs firms have to bear for these apprenticeship training occupations and, at the same time, the smaller the probability of an occupational change during an employee’s entire career. Due to the new definition of occupational specificity, we thus find that apprenticeship training – previously assessed as general training – is very heterogeneous in its specificity.

Vocational Training and Gender: Wages and Occupational Mobility among Young Workers

This paper investigates the relationship between the gender wage gap, the choice of training occupation, and occupational mobility. We use longitudinal data for young workers with apprenticeship training in West Germany. Workers make occupational career choices early during their careers and women and men pursue very different occupational careers. We reconsider whether through occupational segregation women are locked in low wage careers (Kunze, 2005) or whether they can move up to higher wage paths through mobility. We furthermore investigate whether patterns have changed across cohorts during the period 1975 and 2001 and whether effects vary across the distribution. The main results are: First, while there exists a persistent gender wage gap over experience, the gap has decreased over time. Second, in the lower part of the wage distribution, the gap is highest and it increases with experience. Third, occupational mobility is lower for women than for men and the wage gains due to occupational mobility are higher for men than for women, especially in the lower part of the wage distribution. We conclude that occupational mobility has reduced the gender wage gap, but lock-in effects are still stronger for women compared to men.

Vocational Training and Gender: Wages and Occupational Mobility Among Young Workers

This paper investigates the relationship between the gender wage gap, the choice of training occupation, and occupational mobility. We use longitudinal data for young workers with apprenticeship training in West Germany. Workers make occupational career choices early during their careers and women and men pursue very different occupational careers. We reconsider whether through occupational segregation women are locked in low wage careers (Kunze, 2005) or whether they can move up to higher wage paths through mobility. We furthermore investigate whether patterns have changed across cohorts during the period 1975 and 2001 and whether effects vary across the distribution. The main results are: First, while there exists a persistent gender wage gap over experience, the gap has decreased over time. Second, in the lower part of the wage distribution, the gap is highest and it increases with experience. Third, occupational mobility is lower for women than for men and the wage gains due to occupational mobility are higher for men than for women, especially in the lower part of the wage distribution. We conclude that occupational mobility has reduced the gender wage gap, but lock-in effects are still stronger for women compared to men.

Crashworthiness analysis of the Placentia, CA rail collision

The Volpe Center is supporting the Federal Railroad Administration in performing rail passenger equipment crashworthiness research. The overall objective of this research is to develop strategies for improving structural crashworthiness and occupant protection. A field study of passenger train accidents is being conducted to investigate the causal mechanisms of how train occupants are injured during accidents. The investigation of the April 23, 2002 collision in Placentia, CA is being used to develop occupant protection strategies. This process first required the development of two simulation models: a collision dynamics model and an occupant response model. These models suggested that workstation tables brought about fatal thoracic and abdominal injuries in two occupants. Improved crashworthiness performance workstation tables, which limit the abdominal load imparted by the table, are currently under investigation through modelling and full-scale testing with advanced anthropomorphic test devices.

Does prior training and staff occupation influence knowledge acquisition from an aggression management training program?

Aggression management training has become mandatory for mental health staff in New South Wales, Australia. This study explores the differential effects of knowledge acquisition following a 2-day intensive training program for 103 mental health staff comprising three groups: (i) nurses, (ii) allied and medical staff, and (iii) ancillary staff. All occupations had significant knowledge gains following training, although knowledge acquisition was less for staff with prior training than for those without. Results suggest previously trained staff would be better suited to shorter, more frequent, on ward skills-based refresher training.

Assessing the Problem of Human Capital Mismatch in Transition Economies

In transition economies, there may be a significant mismatch between the types of skills that workers possess and the types of skills that the new economy demands. We consider this problem of human capital mismatch along the dimensions of training type (holding the level) and occupation. We document that in the Czech Republic and Poland the wage rate grew faster in business occupations than in technical occupations in the 1990's, and that in response the technical training/occupations contracted while the business training/occupations expanded. We do not find this pattern in Hungary. We construct a neoclassical model with endogenous occupational choice and calibrate it to the Czech and Polish data. We estimate that the discounted sum of output loss due to human capital mismatch amounts to 44% of the aggregate output of the beginning year of transition.

The Evolution of the Early Career Gender Wage Gap

In this paper we investigate when the male-female wage differential arises: Does it evolve over the early career or does it exist right from entry into first employment onwards? For the analysis we use new administrative longitudinal data and focus on the early careers of skilled workers in Germany. We adopt a simple human capital theory approach. Advantages of the data for this type of analysis are that we observe complete work and wage histories, and that we observe workers' skills. Regarding entry wages we find a gap of approximately 25 percent. For the early career, i.e. up to eight years of work experience, the differential stays almost constant at this high level. We find that differences in the apprenticeship training occupation explain the main part of this gap and seem to lead to a permanent wage disadvantage throughout the early career.

Transfer of Concepts and Practices of Vocational Education and Training from the Center to the Peripheries: The case of Germany

Using the example of Germany, this article examines how a center for vocational education and training (VET) is created, what reasons exist for being a center, and which factors determine the center-periphery relation. Taking a historical-systematical analysis as basis, the contribution will depict the formation and development of modern German vocational education and will explore the influences and effects this development has on the policies and concepts of the national development aid in the field of vocational education assistance. The analyses makes clear the close connection between support programs and features and structures of the German vocational education system, in particular its concentration on a dual organized apprenticeship system, on technical and industrial training occupations, and on gender-based characteristics. It also illustrates how national notions of vocational education determine the level of development assistance in this field. One of the conclusions drawn is that due to the fact of the strong historical, societal and cultural embeddedness of vocational education, the transnational transfer of vocational education systems or components thereof seems rather impossible, whether the transfer be to another developed country or to a developing country.

Who Gets Good Jobs? The Hiring Decisions and Compensation Structures of Large Firms

The firm-specific human capital theory implies that large firms prefer to hire younger workers because they invest more in workers than small firms do and because those investments are fixed costs. In this paper, I use data from the Benefits Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) to demonstrate that large firms indeed hire younger workers than small firms, especially for white-collar occupations. I present a simple model of firm cost minimization within an employee search framework, which is consistent with large firms' propensity to hire younger workers, and has additional testable implications regarding large firms' compensation structures. First, since young workers are more valuable to large firms than to small firms, large firms ofier higher starting wages to attract them. This implies flatter starting wage-age profiles among the new hires in large firms. Second, since large firms invest more in workers, they continue to pay higher wages to retain the trained employees. This implies steeper wage-tenure profiles in large firms. Both predictions are borne out by the CPS data. Most strikingly, for the newly hired white-collar workers, not only are the starting wage-age profiles flatter in large finns, but also the size-wage premium disappears for workers hired at age 35 or older. Furthermore, by exploiting cost variations in dimensions other than firm size, such as occupation and industry, this model has additional testable implications. More specifically, an extension of the simple model would imply that, for high training occupations, workers displaced at older ages suffer greater wage losses than younger workers because they have a harder time finding a new good job that requires high investments. But there should be no systematic difference in wage loss by age for occupations that require little training. This prediction is supported by the data from the Displaced Worker Surveys. Finally, limited evidence from the BLS Survey of Employer Provided Training 1995 and the CPS suggests that industries that train more also appear to hire younger workers.

Impact of school and vocational education on smoking behaviour: results from a large-scale study on adolescents and young adults in Germany.

While level of school education has been related to prevalence of cigarette smoking in a number of studies, less information is available on the role of vocational education and related occupational contexts. This study analyses the relative contribution of different types of educational experience to explaining prevalence and intensity of cigarette smoking in a large sample of female and male vocational trainees in Germany. A standardized questionnaire on smoking behaviour and educational performance was applied in 27 educational centers across the country, covering a total of 20,527 respondents (77.3% of the original sample; women: 59.5%, men: 40.5%). Bivariate analysis revealed a high prevalence of current smokers among vocational trainees, both men (51.2%) and women (49.4%). Men were more likely to be heavy smokers, especially with increasing age. In both sexes, prevalence of smoking was particularly high in the following occupational groups: hairdressers, butchers, painters, service personnel (hotels, restaurants), shop assistants/sellers and cooks. Multivariate analysis taking educational level, type of vocational training (occupation), age, sex and urban-rural background into account revealed the highest prevalence odds ratios (POR) of smoking in subjects with the lowest educational level (POR = 5.19 for men and 4.56 for women). Even stronger effects were observed with smoking intensity (> or = 20 cigarettes/day): in men with the lowest educational level the risk of being a heavy smoker was 8.92, and in women 13.54 compared to subjects with a high-school leaving qualification. Poor school education must be considered the relatively strongest predictor of prevalence and intensity of cigarette smoking in a large sample of female and male vocational trainees. Preventive efforts should be directed at specific target groups such as those identified by this study.