The Impact of ICT Usage, Workplace Organisation and Human Capital on the Provision of Apprenticeship Training: A Firm-Level Analysis Based on Swiss Panel Data

KOF Working Paper No. 205

44 Pages Posted: 3 Oct 2008

See all articles by Heinz Hollenstein

Heinz Hollenstein

Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO)

Tobias Stucki

ETH Zürich - Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research

Date Written: September 2008

Abstract

Firstly, we investigated the determinants of a) the propensity of Swiss firms to provide apprenticeship training, and b) the intensity of training (measured by the employment share of apprentices). We primarily were interested in the relevance as explanatory factors of the three constituent elements of the "new firm paradigm" that emerged in the course of the last twenty years: intensive usage of ICT; redesign of workplace organisation; shift from lower to higher skills. We found that the skill composition of the workforce (including further training), ICT intensity and, to a lesser extent, workplace organisation are important drivers of apprenticeship-based skill formation, with stronger effects on training propensity than on training intensity. Secondly, we analysed the relationship between apprenticeship training and firm performance. It turned out that productivity and apprenticeships (training propensity or intensity) are negatively correlated. The study is relevant for training policy in advanced economies where the new firm paradigm plays a large and growing role.

Keywords: Firm-based training, Apprenticeship, Workplace organisation, ICT, Skill formation, Human capital

JEL Classification: J2, L2, O3, M5

Suggested Citation

Hollenstein, Heinz and Stucki, Tobias, The Impact of ICT Usage, Workplace Organisation and Human Capital on the Provision of Apprenticeship Training: A Firm-Level Analysis Based on Swiss Panel Data (September 2008). KOF Working Paper No. 205, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1272326 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1272326

Heinz Hollenstein (Contact Author)

Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) ( email )

P.O. Box 91
Wien, A-1103
Austria

Tobias Stucki

ETH Zürich - Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research ( email )

Weinbergstrasse 35
ETH Zentrum
Zurich 8092, 8092
Switzerland

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