Advancing Workforce Knowledge Through the NTEWS, ATES, and NATES Data Collections
The National Training, Education, and Workforce Survey (NTEWS) gathers information from people aged 16 to 75 about their education, employment, and work-related credentials. The survey focuses on the skilled technical workforce—people who work in science, engineering, and technical fields but do not hold a bachelor’s degree—complementing other federal surveys that focus on the college-educated workforce.
NTEWS participants are surveyed periodically over the course of eight years, helping researchers understand how people enter or leave these jobs, earn new credentials, and adapt to changes in the job market.
NTEWS is jointly sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). It was first administered as a pilot in 2022. Prior to this, NCES carried out similar studies—the National Adult Training and Education Survey (NATES) and the Adult Training and Education Survey (ATES)—in 2010, 2013, and 2016.
AIR's Contributions to the Survey
AIR implemented survey design, data processing, and reporting tasks from 2009 to 2025 to ensure the collection and production of high-quality, timely data on the characteristics and experiences of the skilled technical workforce.
AIR made survey questions clearer and easier to answer by:
- Identifying problematic items through conducting detailed analyses of missing data, edit rates, and skip errors.
- Studying how answers varied by education level, language, and response language. This helped us identify patterns and make changes to improve clarity and reduce burden.
- Recommending improvements to question wording, response options, and questionnaire flow, so future surveys are easy to complete and produce reliable data.
We shaped best practices for mixed-mode survey design, specifically by:
- Publishing a journal article using data from an NTEWS experiment comparing five ways for giving people the choice to respond online and/or by paper. We found that starting with online response only and sending a paper questionnaire in a later mailing was the most effective option.
- Finding that only sending a paper questionnaire without offering the option to respond online was the least effective method—even for groups traditionally expected to prefer paper response. This raises questions about whether the field is moving toward more people not being comfortable responding to a paper survey than to an online survey.
AIR modernized credential coding by:
- Creating a clear system for organizing certifications and licenses grounded in the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system so that the survey data are easier to understand and use.
- Developing 67 detailed codes within 17 broad categories, enabling nuanced analysis of credentials in fields from healthcare to skilled trades.
- Testing and improving the coding process and exploring ways to use keywords for automatic coding. This will make future coding faster and more accurate.
