We compare wages between school leavers who participate in government-funde
d in youth training and those who do not. Using a subset of all school leav
ers in Lancashire between 1988 and 1991, we find that wage differentials ar
e large and negative for all types of participant when training. Once train
ing finishes, differentials are small but still negative. There is no evide
nce that participants have steeper wage profiles. A ranking of lifetime wag
es suggests that the occupations chosen by participants may offer positive
returns compared to occupations with no training. The largest impact comes
at the firm level: training providers pay lower wages to both ex-participan
ts and non-participants.