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06.03.2025 11:00-12:00 (CET): Prof. Dr. Silke Anger & Dr. Ute Leber "Perceived Costs and Benefits of Participating in Further Training"

 The German Institute for Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research (DIFIS), Research Field 2 “Challenges of the modern world of work”

cordially invites you to the sixth event of the DIFIS Interdisciplinary Lunch Time Seminar Series

by


Prof. Dr. Silke Anger & Dr. Ute Leber (Institut für Arbeitsmarktforschung [Institute for Employment Research, IAB] of the German Federal Employment Agency, Nuremberg, Germany)


"Perceived Costs and Benefits of Participating in Further Training"


at 06 March 2025

from 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (CET) via Zoom 


Abstract of the Presentation:

Although recent technological change has considerably altered the demand for skills in the labor market, the participation of workers in on-the-job training has hardly increased, and training rates are especially low for unskilled workers and workers who are exposed to substitution by automation.

However, despite the increasing importance of further training, we know only relatively little about the factors that might explain the low training participation of certain groups of employees, and in particular, evidence on the role of information deficits is scarce.

Our paper tries to shed some light on the barriers to participating in further training by investigating to what extent workers’ beliefs about the costs and benefits of training can explain training participation. We use data from a high frequency panel survey of about 3,000 employees in Germany, which we can link to administrative data on employment biographies. We elicit workers’ expectations about the costs and benefits of training. We do not only take account of monetary costs but also of non-monetary costs such as time and psychological effort. We implement two information experiments about the training benefits and costs and study their effects on workers’ expectations, on their willingness to train, as well as their actual training participation.

Preliminary results show that workers are overly worried about the time and psychological costs of further training. We also find that employees who expect high psychological costs are less likely to engage with training. Finally, our findings show that information about actual costs increases workers’ propensity to participate in further training, whereas information on benefits does not seem to be effective at moving training intentions.

Our findings can contribute to a better understanding of the barriers to participation in further training and thus help to design efficient training policies and counseling.


Short Bio of the Presenters & Affiliation:

Prof. Dr. Silke Anger has been Head of the Research Department “Education, Training, and Employment Over the Life Course” at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) since 2013. Since 2016 she shares her position in a work-sharing with Ute Leber. Since 2013, Silke Anger is Professor of Economics, in particular the Economics of Education, at the Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg.

Silke Anger has been a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) since 2011. She has been a member of the standing field committee “Economics of Education” of the “Verein für Socialpolitik” since 2015, and since 2017 a Research Fellow of the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA) at Maastricht University. She is a member of various scientific committees, including the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW). In addition, together with Prof. Jutta Allmendinger, she is the scientific head of the sub-study "Adult Education and Lifelong Learning" of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS).

Details: https://iab.de/en/employee/anger-silke/


Dr. Ute Leber studied economics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Dipl.-Volkswirtin). Afterwards, she worked as a research assistant at the Chair of Public Finance at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. She completed her doctorate there in 2003. Since 1999, she has been working as a scientific assistant in the Establishments and Employment research department at the IAB. Since 2016, she has also been sharing the position of Head of the Education, Training, and Employment Over the Life Course research department with Silke Anger. Ute Leber is a lecturer at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and the Ansbach University of Applied Sciences.

Details:  https://iab.de/en/employee/leber-ute/


We cordially invite you to participate and look forward to discussing, exchanging, and hearing your thoughts on the impulses each speaker will provide. For further information on the DIFIS Interdisciplinary Lunch Time Seminar Series please consult the Info-Page.


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