Institutional versus On‐The‐Job Training: Some Canadian Evidence

The heavy commitment by many countries to training programmes as an integral component of manpower policies has prompted a considerable amount of research into these activities. In particular, the experience of Sweden, Great Britain, and the United States has furnished valuable information concerning the design, implementation, and performance of national training schemes. However, relatively little published evidence has emerged on the Canadian experience, despite the fact that Canada's training effort is large by international standards. The present article utilises Canadian data to address the question of the appropriate method of training. The analysis focuses upon the relative efficacy of two major types of federal government sponsored training carried out under the Canada Manpower Training Program: institutional (or “classroom”) training and on—the—job training (OJT).