A questionnaire was distributed to 1,305 companies to study the basic skills training provided. Of 62 responses, 41 companies had basic skills training programs. Respondents represented these types of companies: communications and utilities, finance and insurance, manufacturing, wholesalers, retailers, health and hospitals, and mining, and had from 140 to 200,000 employees. Company size and the number of employees in basic skills training were not consistently related. Most employees in basic skills programs were there as new employees, for career advancement, or for retraining. About 19 percent of all employees in the study were in training; 13 percent of them were studying basic skills and represented 2.4 percent of all employees in the study. A typical employee spent 51 hours per year on basic skills training. Employees of 28 companies were seen as unqualified for training groups because of basic skills deficiencies. Most companies (85 percent) reported in-house training arrangements. The basic skills needed for entry-level employment were reading, math, oral communications, writing, workplace skills, and problem solving. Costs were paid by the company budget, tuition refund, direct payment, charging the function to operating expenses, or charging administrative overhead. Training costs devoted to basic skills varied from 4 percent to 70 percent. (YLB)