How to Train an Aging Workforce? Evidence from Company Data

With regard to the demographic development, training an aging workforce becomes a challenge for most companies in the next years. As employees but also suppliers and customers will constantly grow older, skilled and experienced employees are a valuable resource. In this paper we analyze the determinants of participation in various forms of formal employer provided training. Using new data on a large German company from the financial industry, we study in detail the factors determining the number, duration and specificity of training as well as the preferred teaching style chosen by employees of different age groups. Our results indicate that participation in each sort of training is decreasing sharply in the second half of employee's professional life. Especially for the over 50 year olds, training periods become scarce and short. For industry specific courses the decline already starts at age 36. Investing in specially tailored training programs for senior workers might thus be an opportunity to increase training participation