measuring the outputs and outcomes of vocational training

8
collection is likely to be the most effective vehicle to gather information on VET and to generate
indicators in this area.
The UOE data collection is another secondary collection of data gathered from administrative
sources (registers of educational institutions), run jointly by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics
(UIS), the OECD and Eurostat. The units responsible for reporting are the ministerial departments/offices
in charge of statistics or the National Statistical Institute of each country. UOE is the
basic source of information for attainment in VET, allowing separate reporting on pre-vocational and
vocational programmes; output indicators by type of programme (strand) can be made available.
One problem with the UOE data is the ‘netting out’ of graduates from different years or earning multiple
qualifications during the reference school year. Another problem of the UOE data is that reporting
is based on an internationally comparable classification of educational programmes (ISCED)
which is often inappropriately used as a proxy for qualifications (see also the following sections in
this paper). The mapping of qualifications by level of education is rather subject to political negotiations
than underpinned by research, leading to several inconsistencies across countries as to what
should fall under the category of an ISCED-3 qualification (Behringer and Pfeifer, 2004). Eurostat is
currently working on a revision of the UOE data collection aiming to ‘net out’ the adults participating
in adult education programmes. In January 2006 Eurostat put forward to the two other partners (UIS
and the OECD) a proposal for a revision policy of the UOE, looking at improving the comparability,
relevance and coherence of the data. In the absence of a dedicated data collection on VET, UOE remains
the main source for data on vocational education and training.
2. Data gathered from surveys
The Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS) is an enterprise survey carried out by Eurostat
in companies with at least ten employees. There have been two rounds of CVTS, one conducted in
1994 for twelve EU Member States and another round conducted in 2000/01 in all fifteen EU Member
States, Norway and nine Candidate Countries (of which seven became new Member States in 2004).
The survey provides, on a comparable basis for the two rounds, information on employer-sponsored
training taken during the year prior to the survey, for employed persons, excluding apprentices and
trainees. A large set of variables for the enterprises (such as costs of training, incidence of training by
sector, etc.) is available from the survey but only a limited number of variables relate to employees
(total training hours and training participation). The coverage of the different forms of training for
employees refers to training courses which take place away from the place of work (e.g. in a classroom
or a training centre, at which a group of people receive instruction from teachers/tutors/lecturers
for a period of time specified in advance by those organising the course (i.e. intended training). Initial
vocational training (pre-vocational and vocational programmes) undertaken by a person when hired in
order to gain the competencies required for the job is excluded. Post-graduate education is included in
the definition of training. CVTS will be carried out in 2006 in all EU Member States and Acceding