Print version Recommend this page Press release
07/ 2008
Bonn, 14.02.2008
Continuing vocational training in Europe stagnates - Germany con-tinues to occupy only a mid-table position
Initial results from the third European Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS 3) indicate that the year 2005 brought substantial progress only predominantly in the states of southern and South-Eastern Europe compared to the previous survey undertaken in 1999. By way of contrast, development in most western and northern European countries has seen a significant decline. Germany continues to occupy only a mid-table position, decreases having been recorded in the case of important key indicators. There have, for example, been reductions in the proportion of companies providing continuing training and in the quota of firms offering continuing training in the form of courses and seminars. There has also been a slight fall in the proportion of employees taking part in company continuing training courses and a significant decrease in the financial expenditure in this area by companies. Only the number of continuing training hours per employee has remained stable.
The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) has been participat-ing in the preparations for and evaluation of the CVTS studies for more than 15 years. The third round of surveys involved interviews with companies from 27 EU member states and Norway on their continuing training activities. An initial analysis of current data in European comparative terms has been published in the 1/2008 edition of BIBB's German language specialist periodical "Vocational Training in Research and Practice" (BWP).
This analysis shows that it proved possible to bring about an increase in rates of participation in company continuing training courses especially in Eastern Europe, in some Southern European countries and in Austria and Luxembourg. In first position was the Czech Republic with a participation rate of 59 percent compared with 42 percent in 1999, although the data for some countries, such as Finland, one of the leaders from 1999, is still missing.
In the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, however, participa-tions rates are considerably lower than in 1999 (cf. diagram on page 2). Notwithstanding this, the differences between the participating EU states recorded in 2005 are significantly narrower than was the case in 1999. No significant increase in participation in company continuing training is, however, currently discernable. This flies in the face of political objectives being undertaken and runs contrary to the fact that this aim is considered to be one of the central pillars of adult participation in lifelong learning. The employee participation rate in Germany is 30 percent, meaning the country continues to maintain a place in mid-table, although the quota has deteriorated by two percentage points compared to 1999.
The degree of financial commitment displayed by companies in Europe towards training for their staff is also in decline in the majority of countries. Taking direct costs of continuing train-ing as a proportion of a company's overall labour costs, we once again find that the countries investing significantly less in continuing training in 2005 than they did in 1999 are mainly the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands. Some Eastern European countries, such as Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Rumania, record an increase in the amounts of investment made by companies. Germany, occupying fourth last position together with Bulgaria, Lithua-nia, Poland and Rumania, showed a slight decrease in direct continuing training costs to be-tween 0.9 and 0.7 percent of overall labour costs.
Further analyses of the CVTS 3 will form the object of a research project to be commissioned by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) and to be conducted under the lead management of BIBB in conjunction with its partner institutions Céreq (Marseilles) and ISFOL (Rome). The aim is to present further differentiated findings in respect of factors influencing continuing training in European comparative terms by April 2009. In addition to this, the results of CVTS 3 are also forming the basis for a supplemen-tary study currently being conducted at BIBB with financial support from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the objective here being to provide deeper insights pertaining to the situation in Germany.
The article in the German language specialist periodical "Vocational Training in Research and Practice" (BWP) may be downloaded free of charge at www.bibb.de/pm07-2008 .
Points of contact at BIBB for further information:
- Dr. Friederike Behringer, Dr. Bernd Käpplinger, Dick Moraal, Tel.: 0228 / 107-2603,
e-mail: schoenfeld@bibb.de
Diagram: proportion of participants in company continuing training courses (expressed as a percent-age of the total number of employees in all companies)
AT: Austria; BE: Belgium; BG: Bulgaria; CZ: Czech Republic; DE: Germany; DK: Denmark; EE: Estonia; GR: Greece; ES: Spain FR: France; HU: Hungary; LT: Lithuania; LU: Luxembourg; MT: Malta; NL: Netherlands; NO: Norway; PL: Poland; PT: Portugal; RO: Ruma¬nia; SE: Swe-den; SK: Slovakia; UK: United Kingdom (SK, MT: data for 1999 not available); source: Eurostat Database New Cronos, CVTS 2/CVTS 3 (accessed on 19 November 2007, provisional data)
