What Is Happening to Training? What the ABS Training Surveys Tell Us. Working Paper.

The extent of employer-supported education and training in Australia was examined by analyzing data from the Training Expenditure Surveys (TES), which gathered information from firms, and the Surveys of Education and Training Experience (SETE), which gathered information from workers. The TES showed an approximately 10% decline in the hours of external training provided by employers from 1993 to 1996, whereas the SETE showed a more than 80% increase in the hours of employer-supported external training received by workers over a similar period. The different results yielded by the two surveys were attributed to the different definitions of external training in the two surveys and the different behavior of the components of external education and training. The SETE showed a substantial expansion of external training but a decline in the level of employer support for education. However, because the apparent expansion in external training has occurred through an increase in employer support for fees and materials rather than through provision of paid study leave, participation in employer-supported external training may well have increased while the hours of training for which employees are paid by employers has declined. Thus, the findings of TES and SETE do not negate one another. (MN)