REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1552/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistics relating to vocational training in enterprises
Date: 2011-07-14
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU statistics, apprenticeship, education statistics, employment statistics, statistical method

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 14.7.2011 
COM(2011) 434 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1552/2005 of the European Parliament 
and of the Council on statistics relating to vocational training in enterprises 

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REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1552/2005 of the European Parliament 
and of the Council on statistics relating to vocational training in enterprises 

1. 

INTRODUCTION 

This  is  the  first  report  that  the  Commission  is  required  to  submit  under  Article  12  of 
Regulation  (EC)  No  1552/2005  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  7 
September 2005 on statistics relating to vocational training in enterprises1. 

This  report  documents  the  progress  made  by  the  Member  States  and  Norway  (hereinafter 
referred to as Participating Countries2) with respect to the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 
1552/2005  and  the  implementing  Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  198/2006  of  3  February 
20063. The report was endorsed by the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC). 

The contents of the report are based upon quality reports, data and other information received 
from  the  countries  concerned,  in  addition  to  analyses  of  the  national  questionnaires  sent  to 
enterprises,  as  harmonised  statistics  relating  to  vocational  training  in  enterprises  were  made 
available through Continuing Vocational Training sample Surveys (CVTS) in all Participating 
Countries. 

2. 

MAIN POINTS 

Section  2.1  describes  the  reference  data  for  this  report  and  the  periodicity  of  CVTS.  It 
illustrates the implementation of Articles 10(2) and 10(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1552/2005. 
All other articles of the Regulation are reviewed in sections 2.2 to 2.6 as follows: 

–  Articles 3, 8 and 9(1) on the data to be collected and survey approach (section 2.2), 

–  Articles 2, 4, 5 and 6 on the scope of statistics and statistical unit (section 2.3), 

–  Articles 6, 7,10(1) and 11(1) on the data sources and survey characteristics (section 2.4), 

–  Articles 9(2), 9(4) and 11 on the quality and transmission of data (section 2.5), 

–  Articles 15 on the financing of the data collection (section 2.6), 

–  Articles  9(3)  and  12  on  the  main  implementation  issues  encountered  in  the  survey 

(section 2.7). 

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3 

OJ L 255, 30.9.2005, p. 1. 
Croatia, FYROM, Iceland and Switzerland did not conduct the survey. Turkey conducted a survey in 
2008 (micro-data not available at Eurostat) 
OJ L 32, 4.2.2006, p. 15. 

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2.1. 

Reference data for this report, intervals between CVTS: Articles 10(2) and 10(3) 

Pursuant to Article 10(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1552/2005, the Commission shall determine 
the first reference year of the data to be collected. Regulation (EC) No 198/2006 specifies that 
the first reference year for which the data are to be collected shall be the calendar year 2005.  

A  new  survey  is  in  preparation  for  2010,  i.e.  five  years  after  the  first  survey  as  defined  by 
Article 10(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1552/2005. Commission Regulation (EU) No 822/20104 
amends Regulation (EC) No 198/2006 to adapt certain characteristics of the 2005 survey. This 
amendment takes into account the information to be made available through Regulation (EC) 
No  452/20085  and  Commission  Regulation  (EU)  No 823/20106  as  regards  the  Adult 
Education  Survey  and  should  enable  an  improvement  in  the  quality  of  the  results  and  a 
reduction in the statistical burden on enterprises for the 2010 survey. 

It is worth mentioning that the implementation of the 2005 and 2010 surveys benefited from 
two  previous  surveys  on  continuing  vocational  training  conducted  under  “gentlemen’s 
agreements” between a number of countries and Eurostat. The results of these surveys related 
to the calendar years 1993 and 1999 respectively. 

2.2. 

Data to be collected and survey approach: Articles 3, 8 and 9(1) 

Article  3  specifies  the  data  that  are  to  be  collected  in  a  list  of  14  topics  set  out  in  the  table 
below. The distribution of the 140 variables defined in Regulation (EC) No 198/2006 shows 
the appropriate implementation of Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1552/2005 at EU level. 

Table 1 - Data collected in 2005  

Topics listed in Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1552/2005 

1(a)  training  policy  and  training  strategies  of  enterprises  in  developing  the  skills  of  their 
workforce; 

1(b) management, organisation and forms of continuing vocational training in enterprises; 

1(c) the role of social partners in ensuring all aspects of continuing vocational training in 
the workplace; 

1(d)  access  to  continuing  vocational  training,  its  volume  and  content,  especially  in  the 
context of economic activity and enterprise size; 

Number of 
variables in 
Commission 
Regulation 
(EC) No 
198/2006 

25 

17 

9 

10 

4 
5 

6 

OJ L 246, 18.9.2010 p. 18 
Regulation  (EC)  No  452/2008  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  23  April  2008 
concerning the production and development of statistics on education and lifelong learning (OJ L145, 
4.6.2008, p. 227) 
OJ L 246, 18.9.2010 p. 33 

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Table 1 - Data collected in 2005 (Cont.) 

1(e)  specific  continuing  vocational  training  measures  of  enterprises  to  improve  the  ICT 
skills of their workforce; 

1(f)  chances  for  employees  in  small  and  medium-sized  enterprises  (SMEs)  to  access 
continuing vocational training and to acquire new skills, and the particular needs of SMEs 
in the provision of training; 

1(g) the effects of public measures on continuing vocational training in enterprises; 

1(h)  equal  opportunities  to  access  continuing  vocational  training  in  enterprises  for  all 
employees, with respect to gender and specific age groups in particular; 

1(i)  specific  continuing  vocational  training  measures  for  people  at  a  disadvantage  in  the 
labour market; 

1(j)  continuing  vocational  training  measures  geared  to  different  types  of  employment 
contract; 

1(k)  expenditure  on  continuing  vocational  training:  funding  levels and  funding resources, 
incentives for continuing vocational training;  

1(l) evaluation and monitoring procedures of enterprises as regards continuing vocational 
training; 

2(a) participants in initial vocational training; 

2(b) total expenditure on initial vocational training. 

9 

(*) 

5 

14 

8 

4 

17 

8 

3 

11 

Note (*) All variables can be cross-tabulated by enterprise size, such as those of item 1(d) 

The  140  variables  defined  in  Regulation  (EC)  No  198/2006  targeted  both  training  and  non-
training enterprises, as well as different forms of vocational training pursuant to Article 8 of 
Regulation (EC) No 1552/2005, as follows: 

(1) 

For training and non-training enterprises: 96 variables for all enterprises, 35 variables 
for training enterprises only and 9 variables for non-training enterprises only, 

(2) 

For different forms of vocational training: 12 variables. 

All  participating  countries  took  the  necessary  steps  to  ensure  the  quality  of  the  results  as 
required  by  Article  9(1)  of  Regulation  (EC)  No  1552/2005.  This  was  made  possible  via  a 
standard  questionnaire  for  enterprises  which  was  proposed  by  the  European  Commission  in 
the  ‘European  Union  Manual’  pursuant  to  Article  8  of  Regulation  (EC)  No 198/2006. 
Although there was no legal obligation for Member States to use this template, participating 
countries made widespread use of it when defining their national questionnaires. 

All  participating  countries  delivered  the  data  in  accordance  with  the  14  topics  listed  above. 
The delivery of quantitative and secondary information relating to items 1(b), 1(c), 1(d), 1(h), 
1(i),  1(j)  and  1(k)  was  difficult  in  some  participating  countries  due  to  the  complexity  and 
length  of  the  questionnaires  sent  to  enterprises.  Rather  than  impeding  the  production  of 
national  and  EU  results  for  the  14  topics  listed  above,  this  actually  helped  to  reduce  the 

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number of variables in the 2010 survey conducted under Regulation (EU) No 822/2010 (see 
section 2.7). 

2.3. 

Scope of statistics, statistical unit: Articles 2, 4 and 5 

Articles 2, 4 and 5(1) define the statistical units, economic activities and size of enterprises to 
be covered. As requested, all Member States provided data for sections C to K and O of the 
NACE Rev. 1.1 classification for enterprises having 10 or more employees. 

While Article 5(2) suggests extending the coverage to include other sections of the economy, 
it is not possible to reach agreement at the present stage due to major problems of technical 
implementation.  This  is  especially  an  issue  for  the  public  sectors  whose  establishments 
provide significant vocational training (see section 2.7). 

2.4. 

Data sources and survey characteristics: Articles 6, 7, 10(1) and 11(1) 

As  specified  in  Articles  6  and  7(1),  the  data  sources  used  by  the  participating  countries 
combined a sample survey of enterprises and administrative data, by applying the principle of 
reduced burden on respondents. However, the use of administrative sources was confined to 
background information on the number and characteristics of employees, which did not allow 
any substantial reduction of the burden on enterprises. 

As  specified  in  Article  6(2)  on  the  procedures  for  enterprises  to  reply  to  the  survey,  most 
participating countries  chose postal questionnaires combined with telephone calls, and face-
to-face and web-based interviews. Data were also collected electronically in six participating 
countries as promoted by Article 11(1). All participating countries conducted the survey with 
reference to the twelve months of 2005 (one calendar year) as required under Article 10(1). 

Participating countries designed their survey in accordance with Article 7(2) and (3) and the 
provisions of Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 198/2006. This article specifies the sampling 
and precision requirements as well as the 60 strata by economic sector and enterprise size to 
reflect  the  structure  of  the  population  of  the  statistical  units.  Most  of  the  coefficients  of 
variation  in  the  proportion  of  training  enterprises  complied  with  the  requirements  of 
Regulation (EC) No 198/2006 for the 60 strata defined in Article 4 of that Regulation. Some 
exceptions  to  this  rule  were  encountered  for  technical  reasons,  but  they  had  no  impact  on 
national and EU results  as  the  publication focuses  on  more  aggregated  classes  owing  to  the 
small  sample  size.  Examples  of  such  technical  issues  are  the  gaps  between  the  expected 
number  of  enterprises  in  the  sampling  frame  before  the  launch  of  the  survey  and  the  actual 
number  of  enterprises  still  involved  when  the  survey  was  conducted  (e.g.  bankruptcies, 
merging of enterprises, etc.). 

2.5. 

Quality and transmission of data: Articles 9(2) (4) and 11 

Articles 9(2) and 11(4) lay down the deadlines for the transmission of data and quality reports 
to the Commission (Eurostat). As the survey was conducted in 2006 in relation to vocational 
training delivered in 2005, the data were due to be sent to the Commission (Eurostat) by June 
2007 and the quality reports by September 2007. 

In six countries, clean and validated micro-data were transmitted within the deadlines. In 17 
countries, data were transmitted within the following three months due to encoding issues. In 
four countries the validation of the micro-data was delayed by up to 8 months. One Member 

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State  transmitted  clean  and  validated  micro-data  with  a  delay  of  17  months  due  to  major 
problems with the trans-coding of data into the EU format. 

As regards quality reports, 18 participant countries forwarded these within the deadlines. The 
provision of complete files took longer in six countries, which delivered the files with delays 
of between 4 and 10 months. Four countries transmitted complete quality reports with a delay 
of around 24 months due to missing information (e.g. calculation of variances for all strata). 
All  the  reports  enabled  checking  of  the  compliance  criteria  set  out  in  Articles  5  and  7  of 
Regulation (EC) No 198/2006. 

All data were transmitted via electronic data transfer protocols (Edamis/Stadium) as required 
by  Article  6  of  Regulation  (EC)  No  198/2006.  The  files  contained  individual  data  on 
enterprises,  without  direct  identifiers  of  the  statistical  units  as  defined  in  Article  11(2)  of 
Regulation (EC) No 1552/2005. 

Under Articles 6 and 8 of Regulation (EC) No 198/2006, the Commission (Eurostat) provided 
participating  countries  with  software  to  support  the  implementation  of  the  automatic  data 
processing tool. 

Although  the  tool  was  used  by  all  participating  countries  and  ensured  good  quality  of  the 
micro-data, the time lag between the reference year of the results (2005) and when all of the 
results  were  actually  published  (2008-2009)  significantly  limits  the  widespread  use  of  the 
results (see section 2.7). 

2.6. 

Financing of the data collection: Article 15 

Article  15(1)  and  (2)  states  that,  for  the  first  reference  year,  the  Commission  shall  make  a 
financial  contribution  to  the  Member  States  to  help  them  cover  the  costs  incurred  in 
collecting,  processing  and  transmitting  the  data.  A  call  for  grant  proposals  was  therefore 
launched under the 2005 EU budget with the participation of 13 of the EU15 Member States, 
plus Norway. The 2004 Phare  Multi-Beneficiary Programme  for  statistical co-operation and 
the  2004  Transition  Facility  Multi-Beneficiary  Programme  for  statistical  integration  made 
provision for co-financing the implementation of the survey in all of the other EU-27 Member 
States. The total amount awarded to beneficiaries through these actions was 815 558 €. 

The  survey  was  prepared  with  the  aid  of  several  technical  meetings  with  participating 
countries  (e.g.  task  forces  for  the  drafting  of  the  ‘European  Union  Manual’  by  the 
Commission (Eurostat)) as provided for in Article 8 of Regulation (EC) No 198/2006. These 
meetings were supported from the EU budget as indicated in Article 15(3)). 

2.7. 

Report on implementation: Articles 9(3) and 12 

Article  9(3)  states  that  the  Commission  (Eurostat)  shall  assess  the  quality  of  the  data 
transmitted with particular regard to ensuring the comparability of the data between Member 
States. 

Under  the  terms  of  Article  12(1)  the  Commission  shall  transmit  a  report  to  the  European 
Parliament and the Council on the implementation of this Regulation in order to: 

–  assess  the  benefits  accruing  to  the  Community,  the  Member  States  and  the  users  of  the 

statistics produced in relation to the burden on the respondents; and 

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–  identify areas for potential improvement and amendments considered necessary in the light 

of the results obtained. 

The CVTS results were published in the context of the European Commission's annual reports 
on progress towards the Lisbon objectives in education and training. These progress  reports 
provide strategic guidance on policy cooperation at EU level and assess progress in attaining 
overall objectives in the education and training fields. The findings of these reports are used 
by the biannual joint  reports  from  the  Council of Education Ministers and the Commission. 
Two  indicators  have  also  been  constructed  on  CVTS  data  for  the  monitoring  of  the  Lisbon 
strategy in the employment field (employment guidelines). 

In  addition,  since  2002,  national  authorities  and  social  partners  from  32  European  countries 
have been taking part in the Copenhagen Process7 to help develop vocational education and 
training  systems.  The  overall  aim  is  to  encourage  more  individuals  to  make  wider  use  of 
vocational learning opportunities, whether at school, in higher education, in the workplace or 
through private courses. The CVTS data were used in particular to analyse the progress made 
as regards vocational training at the workplace. The most recent Council Conclusions under 
the  Copenhagen  process  of  November  2010,  as  well  as  the  Bruges  Communiqué  from 
December  2010,  underline  the  need  to  improve  understanding  and  data  about  Vocational 
Education and Training systems in the context of the important contribution it has to make to 
the Europe 2020 strategy. 

CVTS data are also used by specialists of vocational training policies in Member States and at 
EU level by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP). 

All in all, the political context implies an increasing demand for, and importance of, the data 
on continuing vocational training. 

Nevertheless, the high burden and cost of the CVTS require a deeper assessment, since there 
are many technical issues preventing the wider use of the data: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

7 

Burden on enterprises: the length and complexity of the questionnaire have meant low 
response  rates from enterprises in some participating countries, as a number  of local 
departments need to be contacted in order to cover all the topics of the questionnaire. 

Reliability  of  the  quantitative  data  collected:  many  enterprises  do  not  have  precise 
records  of  the  content  and  characteristics  of  the  training  provided  in  a  given  year. 
Possibilities  to  collect  quantitative  data  on  continuing  vocational  training  through 
other existing surveys shall be examined.  

Coverage of the survey: the cost and burden of enlarging the CVTS to include small 
enterprises and public sectors is regarded as far too large by participating countries. 

Timeliness:  the  transmission  of  complete  micro-data  delays  the  publication  of  EU 
results  because  of  the  large  number  of  checks  that  have  to  be  performed  before 
dissemination. 

OJ  C  13,  18.1.2003,  p.3  and  Declaration  of  the  European  Ministers  of  Vocational  Education  and 
Training, and the European Commission, convened in Copenhagen on 29 and 30 November 2002, on 
enhanced 
- 
http://ec.europa.eu/education/pdf/doc125_en.pdf  

cooperation 

vocational 

education 

European 

training 

and 

in 

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Regulation  (EU)  No  822/2010  allows  for  the  adaptation  of  the  2010  survey  and  for  an 
improvement of the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1552/2005. Despite the efforts of 
the Commission and participating countries to streamline the survey, a number of difficulties 
will still persist. This might require an adaptation of the technical requirements laid down in 
Regulation (EC) No 1552/2005 on the basis of the 2010 survey results. 

3. 

CONCLUSION 

The implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1552/2005 is satisfactory as regards the type of 
data  collected.  The  level  of  compliance  with  Regulation  (EC)  No 1552/2005  by  the 
participating countries is largely appropriate. 

In the light of the Europe 2020 strategy and its flagship initiative entitled 'an agenda for new 
skills  and  jobs',  the  Commission  will  assess  the  outcomes  of  Regulation  (EU)  No  822/2010 
(implementation  of  the  2010  CVTS)  before  proposing  any  further  actions  to  streamline 
statistics relating to vocational training in enterprises. Reflection on the future development of 
the  CVTS  should  include  a  review  of  potential  complementarities  with  other  instruments, 
notably the Adult Education Survey (AES). 

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