An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Classroom and on-the-Job Training

Abstract : The research reported here examines overall training effectiveness for U.S. Naval personnel; the measure of effectiveness comes from the survey responses of the supervisors of first-term enlisted Naval Personnel. These supervisors were asked about the productivity of 'typical' first-term personnel who where schooled in the classroom or trained on the job. The survey is the Enlisted Utilization Survey (EUS) conducted by the RAND Corporation for the Dept. of Defense in the mid-seventies. The EUS included over 2,000 supervisors' productivity assessments for twelve Navy occupational categories: seven of the specialties offer the alternative of formal schooling or on-the-job training. These specialties characterize a broad cross-section of Navy jobs that vary considerably in technical complexity and formal school length. The usefulness of research on training effectiveness in other areas of military manpower research is discussed.