How large is the firm-specific component of German apprenticeship training?

In this paper, we use unique firm-level data to calculate a monetary value of the firm-specific component of German apprenticeship training. We do this by comparing the initial productivities and wages of externally recruited and internally trained workers in the same job, occupation and firm. We argue that the resources needed to increase the productivity of externally recruited workers to the level of internally trained workers are an adequate measure of the firm specificity of training. We also calculate the firm-specific component as a share of total investment in human capital during apprenticeship training. Our results support the view that German apprenticeship training is mainly general, with an average specific share of 12% of total human capital investments. The share, however, increases with firm size and differs between occupational fields. (DIPF/Orig.