Determinants of employee participation in on-the-job training: The case of private education sector in Malaysia

On-the-job training may be crucial in producing a suitably skilled work force to enhance organisational productivity and competitiveness. The Malaysian government has emphasised the importance of investment in human capital enhancement, in particular, training by making substantial national expenditure allocations for the purpose. This article examines the nature of training programmes attended by employees in Malaysia’s private education institutions, and analyses factors that determine their training participation. Primary data were gathered from field surveys of 567 executives and senior management personnel. Analytical results of the findings show that training programmes most attended by employees were technical and managerial, that periods of training were less than 3 months, and that employees more frequently attended informal trainings within the organisations. Permanent and contract employees were more likely to train than temporary workers, as did non-administrative vis-s-vis administrative workers. Further, employees with longer schooling time were most likely to participate in training programmes. Given the nature of such determiants it is suggested that employees’ training programmes be widen to cover all levels of job categories in order to enhance their productivity and competitiveness.