The profitability of vocational and further training activities differs with respect to the individual, firms’ and the economy’s point of view. These differences explain some of the observed heterogeneity of individual, occupational and the firms’ further training activities. External effects of training related to key qualifications can result in too low investment activities in further training conducted by firms. This is why policy makers in Germany discuss a stronger regulation of vocational training. This project compares the further training activities of employed and self-employed individuals. It is shown that self-employed persons participate less in further training activities than employed individuals but that their training activities are more even spread over the working life. The further training rate of the employed (15.7 %) is 3.7 percentage points higher than the training rate of the self-employed. The training rate of the employed is highest for those having 10 to 15 years of work experience (36.1 %), while the self-employed persons’ training rate is highest in the beginning of their self-employment (35.2 %). The earnings effects of further training activities are significantly higher for the employed than for the self-employed. This is some hint for the empirical importance of internal promotion processes for dependent employees. Intensification and public regulation of further training activities will not necessarily result in better occupational conditions for a randomly selected worker.