Training hypothesis

The training hypothesis, also known as the "job training hypothesis" or the "on-the-job-training hypothesis" is an area of study in economics, specifically in studies of productivity and wages. It predicts that low-aptitude applicants for employment or education can be made just as proficient as high-aptitude applicants, by giving them extra education or experience.
To explain the hypothesis, Linda Gottfredson writes:

Another approach has been to provide extra instruction or experience to very low-aptitude individuals so that they have more time to master job content. Both reflect what might be termed the training hypothesis, which is that, with sufficient instruction, low-aptitude individuals can be trained to perform as well as high-aptitude individuals. The armed services have devoted much research to such efforts, partly because they periodically have had to induct large numbers of very low-aptitude recruits. Even the most optimistic observers (Sticht, 1975; Sticht, Armstrong, Hickey, & Caylor, 1987) have concluded that such training fails to improve general skills and, at most, increases the number of low-aptitude men who perform at minimally acceptable levels, mostly in lower level jobs.

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