Modernization of Vocational Training Curricula and Technology Adoption in Firms: A Descriptive Analysis with German Data

This paper summarizes results of a project that tries to examine how the revision of vocational training (apprenticeship) curricula affects the training behavior and investment decision of training companies. The project paid particular attention to IT-related changes in curricula and firms' investments in IT and new production technology. Unfortunately, based on the available dataset, the German Linked-Employer-Employee-Data (LIAB), the project was not able to produce conclusive evidence on the expected relationship. We find first support for a positive correlation between curricula changes and the probability to invest in IT for training firms but with the small number of cases (occupational curricula changes) and the limited number of adequate dependent variables we did not find significant effects for most single occupations. In the following, however, we provide some descriptive patterns that shed light on what we do know and what we do not know