Key Figures on Vocational Education and Training.

Overview & Synopsis

This brochure identifies key figures on vocational education and training (VET) and VET-related topics in Europe using harmonized data from Eurostat. Throughout, figures of candidate countries are compared to those of European Union (EU) member states. Background information on the education and training systems is as follows: increasing numbers of young people study beyond upper secondary education and the educational level of the population as a whole is rising; the rise in education level attained is general; unemployment rates tend to be lower for people with higher qualifications; and the number of students enrolled in tertiary education has more than doubled in the past 25 years. In general, a larger proportion of students enroll in the vocational stream than in general upper secondary education, more males than females are in the vocational stream, the majority of participants in VET programs attend education/training establishments, and most participants are between the ages of 15 and 19. As for continuing vocational education and training (CVT), enterprises from EU countries provided more CVT than candidate countries, percentages of enterprises offering CVT increase as the size of enterprises increase, approximately 40% or less of employees take part in training in enterprises, and European enterprises invest between 0.5% and 3.6% of labor costs in CVT courses. (Contains 15 figures, methodological notes, and 5 references.) (MO)