Country Study ID Population Intervention Control Outcomes Main finding Denmark Holm 1995
(196) Unemployed adults N= 88,948
General adult
edu-cation No program Employment
Earnings Participants in general education had higher employment and earnings compared to those in the control group. The effect was larger among long-term unemployed adults.
Denmark Holm 2017
(56) Employees coming from ordinary em-ployment and receiving sick-ness benefits.
N= 28,104
Ordinary education Non-formal ed-ucation; subsi-dized intern-ships; wage-subsidized; job training
Employment Ordinary education had a significant positive effect on ployment duration but no effect on the transition into em-ployment. This effect was the result of two opposing ef-fects, a large positive effect of having completed education and a large negative lock-in effect, with low re-employment chances during program participation.
Denmark Høgelund 2002 (137)
No program Employment Participation in educational programs did not significantly help employees back to work.
Denmark Jespersen 2008 (197)
Classroom training Private job training; public
Classroom training did not significantly improve employ-ment or earnings compared to the other groups in the long run.
France Ferrari
2007 (198) Unemployed adults N= 10,601
Human capital in-tensive programs:
labor market train-ing in general, man-
ufacturing/agricul-On-the-job
training Employment Human capital intensive training raised the transition rate out from unemployment by 60%, while on-the-job training programs increased this transition by 23%.
ture, business sup-port tertiary do-mains
Norway Aavik 2003 (46) pro-grams (i.e., ordinary classes in public school system, or occupational class-room training)
No training Employment Participants in the educational programs had around eight times higher employment rates compared to nonpartici-pants.
Norway Dahl 2005
(51) Social assis-tance recipi-ents
N= 55,604
Training programs aiming to provide the participants with labor market skills
Employment programs; no program
Earnings Training programs were associated with higher overall earnings, whereas employment programs produced no significant effects. covering a wide range of subjects, from carpentry to language courses and computers.
Vocational
Employment None of the programs showed positive effects on ment. Employment programs increased full-time employ-ment of females but not of males, and for the younger age group, but not of those over 20 years of age.
No program Norway Hauan 2015
(199) public or private education)
Work practice;
assistance
Employment All programs increased employment. Education showed the largest effects, followed by assistance, whereas work prac-tice had the smallest effects.
Norway Kvinge
2006 (49) First genera-tion non-west-ern immi-grants N= 89,661
Education Work practice;
wage support Employment The proportion of non-western immigrants employed was higher in participants who received educational services relative to the other groups.
Norway Raaum
2002 (52) Unemployed adults N= 1,506
Labor market
train-ing programs No program Earnings Average training effects were positive and persistent over the post-training period of 5 years. Participants without re-cent work experience, prior to the training, gained less.
Norway Westlie
2008 (47) Adults in voca-tional rehabili-tation services N= 177,353
Education provided by the local
employment ser-vice, and public ed-ucation
Disability Educational programs increased the employment probabil-ity by 11.7 and 15.4 percent compared to work training programs in adults in vocational rehabilitation services.
Wage subsidies showed the largest effects on employment relative to the other groups. Educational programs showed the largest favorable effects on disability prevention. Par-ticipants with the worst initial employment prospect bene-fited most from program participation.
Spain Corrales 2016 (200) recognized by the National System of Education)
Employment The participation in adult non-formal education had a posi-tive employment effects; however, these effects varied in terms of gender, age and level of initial education. Partici-pating in formal education yielded negative non-significant results.
and is less structured) Sweden Albrecht
2005 (201) Low-skilled workers N= 38,895
The Swedish adult education program,
“Knowledge Lift”
No program Employment
Earnings Knowledge Lift program resulted in a positive employment effect only for young men. The program did not improve average annual earnings.
Sweden Andren
2002 (202) Unemployed adults N= 4,377
Labor market train-ing (classroom courses)
No program Employment The participation in training increased employment proba-bility by around 18% in Swedish-born participants, while smaller effects were observed in foreign-born participants.
Negative effects were observed during the first year.
Sweden Carling
2004 (203) Unemployed adults N= 25,280
Classroom
voca-tional training On-the-job training pro-grams
Employment On-the-job training programs showed better results on em-ployment than classroom vocational training.
Sweden Frolich
2004 (204) Long-term sick-listed em-ployees N= 6,287
Educational rehabil-itation: educational training towards a new occupation
Employment No rehabilitation appeared to be superior to all other pro-grams. Workplace rehabilitation had larger effects on em-ployment probability than educational rehabilitation and medical rehabilitation.
Sweden Regner
2002 (205) Unemployed adults N= 4,531
Labor market train-ing (classroom courses)
No program Earnings Labor market training resulted in no effects or significantly negative earnings effects on earnings.
Sweden Richardson
2013 (206) Unemployed adults N= 28,451
Labor market train-ing (classroom courses)
No program Employment Labor market training showed positive employment effects shortly after exiting the program. The effects on unemploy-ment duration were small when the time spent in the pro-gram was taken into account.
Sweden Stenberg
2003 (207) Unemployed adults
training Employment
Earnings Participants in the educational initiative had better em-ployment prospects but longer duration in unemem-ployment.
Both programs demonstrated negative earning effects.
Sweden Stenberg
Earnings The results showed small benefits of comprehensive educa-tion relative to vocaeduca-tional training on earnings.
Sweden Stenberg
2008 (209) Unemployed adults
Earnings Participants with more than one semester at upper second-ary level of the comprehensive adult education programs had higher earnings compared to those who did not attend any program, whereas no effects were found for partici-pants at the compulsory level. Vocational training resulted in larger increases in earnings relative to comprehensive education.
Sweden Stenberg 2015 (185)
Earnings Both programs showed positive earnings effects compared to no program in the years following participation, with vo-cational training associated with relatively larger earnings payoff. Vocational training resulted in higher earnings in the short run, but earnings converged 5–7 years post pro-gram.
Switzerland Lalive 2002
(210) Unemployed workers N= 13,496
Active labor market programs:
Employment No important differences on employment were seen across the programs, except for temporary wage subsidies, which was associated with lower unemployment rates, but only for foreign workers.
USA Dyke 2005 and vocational skills training)
Job readiness or job search;
no program
Earnings Participants in intensive training had higher earnings than those in the other groups. Intensive training led to negative results in the short-term but these results became positive around the fourth quarter after program enrollment.
USA Pena 2015
No program Earnings Weeks worked
Continuing education participation was associated with higher earnings and more weeks employed relative to no participation. Effect estimates varied across both program types and genders.
English/ESL Citizenship Job training
General educational development (GED)/high school Other US classes