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- Title
Training Small Business Employees: Matching Needs and Public Training Policy.
- Authors
LICHTENSTEIN, JULES
- Abstract
This article deals with the employee training provided by small business. Small business training is thought to be more informal and more ad hoc and is believed to emanate more from the owner or a relatively high-level employee than in a large firm. The Small Business Administration (SBA) tried to examine this informal training by wage growth and found that employees with similar characteristics have equal amounts of both formal and informal training. The Wave 3 of the 1984 Survey of Income and Program Participation is one of the few sources that allows a link to be made between training and firm size. The data reveal that many people in the work force in both small and large firms have received some formal training at some point in their careers. SBA also attempted to determine where the formal training was taking place, on the job or off the job. Based on the findings, it appears that business, commercial, or vocational education is the most significant system of formal training for smaller business employers. These data suggest that a small business would receive a tremendous potential benefit from improving this educational system. A growing concern among small employers seems to be finding employees who have general skills and appropriate attitudes rather than job-specific skills. Many small business employees seem to need remedial skills--skills that should have been acquired during formal schooling. Small firms must not only deal with the skill needs of younger, entry-level employees, but they must also retrain experienced employees. Small businesses also have to deal with the issue of scale in training employees, especially when more specific training is required. In any training strategy, the key is to effectively diagnosis the shortcomings in employee skills and knowledge prior to the development and funding of training programs. Small businesses appear to lag in diagnosing their formal training needs.
- Publication
Journal of Labor Research, 1992, Vol 13, Issue 1, p23
- ISSN
0195-3613
- Publication type
Academic Journal
- DOI
10.1007/BF02685447