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Workplace Education for Low-Wage Workers

Amanda L. Ahlstrand, U.S. Department of Labor
Laurie J. Bassi, Human Capital Capability, Inc.
Daniel P. McMurrer, Knowledge Asset Management, Inc.

Introductory chapter | Table of Contents

"Ahlstrand and her coauthors provide a well-organized introduction to the practice of work force developemnt in the late 1990s in the United States. Its chief merits are the authors' persuasive anecdotal evidence for making models of worker training more complete and the attention they draw to the issue of training subsidies."
Industrial and Labor Relations Review
Employers are often apprehensive about providing workplace education and training for their low-wage workers. They see such training as costly, directed at a population lacking the incentive to pursue further learning, and a contributor to employee turnover as the general knowledge accumulated by workers makes them attractive to other employers who are able to pay higher wages. Yet a number of employers remain committed to providing training to their low-wage workers and they have good reasons for doing so.

This study reports on employers' practices and decision-making procedures with regards to workplace education and training for low-wage workers. Focusing on these employees is important, say the authors, because they are the ones most likely to experience declining wages or job loss as a result of rapid and fundamental changes in the economy. In addition, there is reason to believe that workplace education programs may be more successful in raising earnings among low-wage workers than are government-provided programs. For whatever reason, these are the workers who are the least likely to receive training, and at the same time, they are the ones who could benefit from it the most.

Ahlstrand, Bassi, and McMurrer's study addresses five key research questions, including: 1) how much training is provided to lower-wage workers; 2) who tends to provide this training; 3) what are the barriers and enablers to effective training; 4) what roles do supply and demand play in determining how much training is provided; and 5) what role might external incentives play in whether or not training is offered?

The authors use a three-phase approach to answer these questions. First, they perform a statistical analysis of a database consisting of employers' workplace education and training practices. Next, they report on a set of structured telephone interviews conducted with 40 of the organizations showing an unusual commitment to providing training to their lower-wage workers. Finally, they use the results from those interviews as the basis for conducting a set of site visits and case studies of eight organizations found to be making relatively high investments in training for their low-wage workers. These case studies detail the workforces involved, the education and training opportunities offered, employers' and employees' perspectives on that training, and the lessons learned.
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    • This work shows that substantial benefits accrue to lower-wage workers whose employers provide them workplace education and training. They acquire skills and knowledge that make them more productive and valuable employees. And, it turns out, the companies providing this training benefit, too, mainly by experiencing improvements in employee retention and customer satisfaction. Policymakers, adult education administrators, and corporate trainers should all find the results of this work to be of interest.
    184 pp. $40 cloth ISBN 0 88099 266-2 / $18 paper ISBN 0 88099 265-4 / 2003.

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