Persistence in the determination of work-related training participation: Evidence from the BHPS, 1991–1997

In this paper we investigate the role of workers’ training history in determining current training-incidence. The analysis is conducted on an unbalanced sample comprising information on approximately 5000 employees from the first seven waves of the BHPS. Training participation is modelled as a dynamic random effects probit model where the effects of unobserved heterogeneity and initial conditions are accounted for in a fashion consistent with methods proposed by Chamberlain (1984) and Wooldridge (2005), respectively. The results suggest that prior training experience is a significant determinant of a worker's participation in a current training episode comparable with other formal educational qualifications.