Formal and Informal Ways of Learning in Employer-Provided Further Training in East and West German Enterprises: Results From a Large-Scale Establishment Survey

Zusammenfassung

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The paper analyses the mix of training forms in employer-provided training in East and West German enterprises with a special emphasis on informal and work-integrated forms of learning. Recent studies have shown that East German enterprises are at least as active in employer-provided training as West German firms. However, these studies are limited to formal ways of further training. Based on a large-scale enterprise survey and ordered-logit regressions, differences in employer-provided further training activities between East and West German enterprises can be shown. In particular, East German enterprises are less active in informal and work-integrated ways of further training.

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Auszug

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Formal and Informal Ways of Learning in Employer-Provided Further Training in East and West German Enterprises: Results From a Large-Scale Establishment Survey

1. Introduction

This paper analyses differences in further training activities between East German and West German enterprises. The analysis includes not only the intensity (diversity and diffusion) of further training, but variance in the mix of further training forms. Special attention is given to formal and informal further training forms. In a second step, we analyse whether organizational characteristics which influence further training activities differ between East and West German enterprises at the micro level., i.e. we analyse whether differences in the diffusion of training forms are caused by a different composition of the population of firms in East an West Germany or whether these differences can be attributed to a different "further training behaviour" of firms.

The key conceptual distinction in this paper is the distinction between formal and informal further training. "Further training activities" are learning activities of individuals aiming at a better understanding of, or coping, with current job tasks. Further training activities are in particular activities which take place after a primary vocational training, or at least after some time of work experience. In this paper, we focus on employer-provided further training only. By formal and informal ways of further training we mean training forms which differ in the the organization of the learning process, its specificity, and the contents of learning (Faust/Holm 2001; Staudt/Kley 1998).

Organization of the learning process: Formal further training refers to organized training measures such as courses or seminars which are conducted outside the regular workplace. By informal further training we mean learning activities which take...

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