IZA Workshop Apprenticeship Training: A Model for the Future?

Place: IZA, Schaumburg-Lippe-Str. 9, Bonn, Germany
Date: November 9-10, 2001
Organizers: Rob Euwals and Rainer Winkelmann

Providing vocational post-secondary training for youths, as well as easing the transition from school to work, is an important policy area. Many countries provide training for youths, and several countries consider strengthening their apprenticeship system. In discussions on this issue, the well-developed and highly regulated German apprenticeship system is regularly presented as a role model. But there are several questions to be answered before a highly regulated apprenticeship system can be accepted as a model for the future. Among these questions are: Under what conditions do firms participate in such a system? Is there a role for public institutions? Is a strongly regulated apprenticeship system able to keep track of fast (technical) developments? And what can we learn from experiences of different countries?

The objective of this meeting is to bring together the researchers in this community in an informal setting, with the explicit agenda of presenting and discussing current applied and theoretical work in the areas of youth education and apprenticeship training. Participants of the workshop will discuss how this current research contributes to our understanding of apprenticeship training systems.

Friday, November 9
12:15 - 12:30	Rainer Winkelmann (University of Zurich and IZA) Welcome and Opening Remarks
12:30 - 14:00	Hans Gersbach (University of Heidelberg and IZA) and Armin Schmutzler (University of Zurich) A Product Market Theory of Training and Turnover in Firms
	Damon Clark (Nuffield College Oxford and CEP London) Matching, Screening, and Firm Investment in General Training: Theory and Evidence
14:00 - 14:45	Coffee
14:45 - 16:15	Anette Boom (Free University of Berlin) Firms' Investments in General Training and the Market for Skilled Labour Christian Dustmann (University College London and IZA) and Uta Schönberg (University College London) Will Firms Pay for Training? Testing Alternative Explanations using Matched and Longitudinal Data
16:15 - 17:00	Coffee
17:00 - 18:30	Damon Clark (Nuffield College Oxford and CEP London) and René Fahr (IZA) The Promise of Workplace Training for Non-College-Bound Youth: Theory and Evidence from German Apprenticeship Nick Adnett (Staffordshire University), Spiros Bougheas (University of Nottingham) and Yannis Georgellis (Brunel University London) The Effect of Firing and Exit Costs on the Trade-off between Work-Related Training and Labour Mobility
19:00	Dinner at Ristorante La Grappa, Thomas-Mann-Str. 24
Saturday, November 10
09:15 - 10:45	Klaus Stöger (University of Linz) and Rudolf Winter-Ebmer (University of Linz and IZA) Apprenticeship Training in Austria: Which Firms Train? Bart Cockx (IRES, Université Catholique de Louvain and IZA) and Isabelle Bardoulat (IRES, Université Catholique de Louvain) Vocational Training: Does it Speed up the Transition Rate out of Unemployment?
10:45 - 11:30	Coffee
11:30 - 13:00	Felix Büchel (Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin) Successful Apprenticeship-to-Work Transitions: On the Long-Term Change in Significance of the German School-Leaving Certificate Rob Euwals (IZA) and Rainer Winkelmann (University of Zurich and IZA) Why do Firms Train? Empirical Evidence on the First Labour Market Outcomes of Graduated Apprentices
13:00 - 14:00	Lunch at IZA
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Participants will be reimbursed for a return journey to the conference, in accordance with IZA standard guidelines.

Rob Euwals (euwals@iza.org) IZA P.O. Box 7240 53072 Bonn, Germany phone: +49-228-3894-302, fax: +49-228-3894-510