On the job training (OJT) is the training an employer provides to an employee to further the employee’s ability to effectively do a particular job within a firm.  The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) provides funding to states for a variety of workforce development programs that may include OJT.  In Ohio, WIA is implemented by local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs), thus OJT funding levels vary by community.  By helping defray the cost of training new employees, WIA-funded OJT serves as an incentive for employers to hire an individual.

Researchers have investigated outcomes for individuals receiving WIA services generally; however, these studies have looked at WIA training services in aggregate, while training services encompass a wide variety of potential basic or applied training.  This research will pinpoint the impact of funding OJT specifically on participants’ employment outcomes.

We estimate the effects of OJT using the Ohio Unemployment Insurance (UI) data, an administrative data source that identifies the wages of all Ohio employees for whom UI is filed. In addition, we examine employment outcomes by industry using quarterly census of employment and wages (QCEW) employer records. We will use propensity score matching to create a comparison group from the pool of individuals who had contact with a WIB but did not receive OJT or similar services.  As a result, the comparison group will have received some workforce development services, but will not have received intensive or training services through WIA.  We will measure both immediate changes in wages and the trajectory of wages over five years. 

The literature suggests the benefits of training programs are generally not seen until about three years post-training.  We therefore focus on the cohort of beneficiaries who received training between 2006 and 2008, to allow sufficient post-training time to elapse to determine the impact of the program.  Although this research will be limited to OJT in Ohio, we will examine variation in implementation and impact across local WIBs. 

This analysis will provide evidence of the effects of OJT in Ohio, as well as the variation in effects among WIBs.  National or state-wide evaluations of workforce development programs mask detail when local boards with varying implementation strategies and environments are aggregated up.  Further, longitudinal administrative data allow us to make a case for longer term impact of OJT, as well as a stronger case for causation.