Although workshop attendance appears to be as high as participation in training, this paper is the first study in the educational science, human resource management and labour economics literature that explores the drivers of workshop attendance among the working population. In our analysis of the Dutch Adult Education Survey, we find that workshop attendance is highest among managers and professionals, in contrast to their participation in training. These results confirm our expectation that workshop attendance is important in acquiring state-of-the art knowledge on external developments as a dominant source of competitive advantage for the organization. Furthermore, workshop attendance is positively related to individuals’ level of education. Particularly in workers’ mid-career years, attending workshops appears to be an important mode of learning: Workshop attendance is peaking at the age of 47. Moreover, we find that workshop attendance is complementary to training participation instead of a substitute. Our results show that there are interesting differences between the drivers of workshop attendance and those of participation in training and informal learning.

中文翻译：

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参加讲习班作为一种学习方式：来自荷兰的证据

尽管参加研讨会的人数似乎与参加培训的人数一样高，但本文是教育科学，人力资源管理和劳动经济学文献中的第一篇研究，该文献探讨了劳动人口参加研讨会的动因。在我们对《荷兰成人教育调查》的分析中，我们发现与管理人员和专业人员的参与相比，管理人员和专业人员的出席率最高。这些结果证实了我们的期望，即参加研讨会对于获取有关外部发展的最新知识至关重要，这是组织获得竞争优势的主要来源。此外，参加讲习班与个人的教育水平成正比。特别是在工人职业中期，参加讲习班似乎是一种重要的学习方式：参加讲习班的年龄在47岁达到顶峰。此外，我们发现参加讲习班是对培训参与的补充，而不是替代。我们的结果表明，参加讲习班的人与参加培训和非正式学习的人之间存在有趣的差异。