Participation in Work-Related Education: Variations in Skill Enhancement among Workers, Employers, and Occupational Closure

Work-related education plays an increasingly important role in the lives of Americans as labor markets, technology, and organizations change, requiring of them more lifelong acquisition of skill. This paper examines how the behaviors of workers, employers, and occupational closure jointly influence the participation of workers in job-related coursework. Together, these actors construct training markets. I use the Adult Education Interview of the 1995 National Household Education Survey (NHES: 95) to examine the role of workers, employers, and closure processes. The findings show persistent patterns of inequality in access to job-related instruction originating in all the three domains of influence.