Improving skills for more and better jobs: does training make a difference?

Abstract

It is often claimed that upgrading workers’ skills could help meet the challenges of technological and structural change, as well as population ageing. Policies to enhance skills could thus be an important part of the OECD Jobs Strategy. Still, little is known about the labour market impact of adult learning. Do policies that enhance workers’ skills help improve the overall employment situation? To what extent do workers who receive training enjoy better job prospects to the detriment of their non-trained counterparts? Are the effects of training different across demographic groups and what do empirical findings suggest as regards lifelong learning strategies?