Americans acquire vocational skills from one of two places: formal institutes of education, or the job site itself. Formal education is front-loaded in the first 25 years of life. According to The Council of Economic Advisors, expenditures on education peak around $14,000 per year per capita in our teenage years, with 90%+ of that spend coming from government sources. As we enter college, that government expenditure drops to around $6,000, but the total expenditure remains at $14,000 thanks to private sources. The expenditure tapers off to around $4,000 in our 20's, $3,000 in our 30's, $2,000 in our 40's, and so on. Nearly all these dollars in our older years come from private companies, but the magnitude of the investment is almost an order of magnitude smaller in adulthood.