2 February 2024 — As an employment services provider, the Angus Knight Group is committed to helping clients find sustainable and meaningful employment. It is therefore vitally important that lessons be learned from ‘what training works and for whom’ across the world. This is important as expenditure on training accounts for around 25% of spending on labor market programs across the OECD.
This paper explores the evidence on the effectiveness of training in improving employment outcomes for unemployed people. Many large-scale studies (particularly from the United States) have cast doubt on the effectiveness of training programs in improving employment outcomes or earnings. However, there is a body of evidence that if training is properly targeted to the needs employers and at jobs in demand then training and skills development programs can be effective.
Malcolm Cook is an economist with extensive experience in labor market policy and analysis. Malcolm was a Lecturer in Economics at the University of New England and Southern Cross University and has authored over a dozen refereed publications on labor statistics, Australian economic history, economic policy, and health economics. After leaving academia Malcolm worked as an employment policy adviser in the Australian Public Service, contributing to the development of Australia’s employment services model, including Job Network, Job Services Australia, jobactive and the Remote Jobs and Communities Program. He now works with Angus Knight researching labor market trends and advising on employment policies.
