A study of the training opportunities of high school graduates (about 825,000 in 1988) who work immediately after leaving school identified which members of that group get trained, by whom, and with what earnings consequences, based on the experiences of a sample of graduates from their graduation in 1972 until 1986. The following are among the findings: (1) employer-provided training is not an alternative to formal education for acquiring productive skills because work-bound youth receive less training than either non-degree participants or college-bound youth; (2) work-bound youth who receive employer-provided training have substantially higher earnings than those who do not; (3) the public sector employs a much smaller percentage of work-bound youth than does the private sector but is more likely to educate or train them; (4) men and women in the private sector are likely to report equal participation in training, but women report the duration of their training to be only three-fourths or one-half that of men's; and (5) public sector women are less likely to participate in training than public sector men. Altering public or private policy to correct these inequities is not recommended. Before taking a corrective step, policy makers should decide whether additional training would improve the productivity of work-bound youth, whether it is possible to design training programs to compensate for their educational deficiencies, and how can strategies be developed to optimize female employees' productivity with the restraints they have as primary caretakers of children. (11 references) (CML)