measuring the outputs and outcomes of vocational training

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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
9 Countries on a legal basis. While keeping the results as comparable as possible with the previous two rounds of survey, CVTS 3 will provide additional information related to the companies (e.g. training strategies) and, more importantly, new information related to employees (e.g. reasons for nonparticipation). The coverage will be enlarged to include some initial vocational training (formal learning leading to a formal qualification). The Adult Education Survey (AES) is a new initiative of Eurostat, already carried out in two Member States in 2005 (Sweden and the United Kingdom). AES will be carried out in 2006/07 in all other Member States and the two Acceding Countries. The majority of countries will implement AES as a stand-alone survey; some will include AES variables within existing surveys (mostly as an ad-hoc module of the LFS) and only two participating countries will adapt national surveys on adult education. Some AES variables could be used to generate indicators on outputs of training, especially on patterns of participation in training (including attitudes towards and obstacles to learning), incidence of training at the work place, use of ICT and self-reported language skills. Crossed with background variables (e.g. self-reported educational attainment level, working status), these could be useful in generating composite measures on participation in adult education. AES will be implemented under a legal basis and will have a good level of comparability as a result of using the international classifications for education status, working status and occupational status, as well as the European definitions of the labour force variables. The survey will use the Classification of Learning Activities (CLA), which is a very useful tool, agreed upon by European statisticians for the classification and comparison of learning. AES is expected to represent an important source of information on individuals’ and employers’ investments in training. The Labour Force Survey (LFS) remains the main vehicle to gather information on participation in training over a period of time. At present, three of the five European benchmarks used to monitor progress in education and training at the European level are constructed using LFS variables, but LFS variables for monitoring purposes are being used on a much larger scale throughout the EU’s Structural Indicators. LFS has been carried out since 1993 and represents a good source of information on participation on education and training, offering complete coverage at EU level in a timely manner. Another advantage of LFS is the possibility to capture additional information on a specific topic by running a so-called ‘ad-hoc module.’ The modules are technically totally compliant with the coresurvey and offer the possibility to construct additional variables other than the LFS core variables. Two ad-hoc modules have been carried out so far, one module on the transition from education to working life (reference year 2000) and another module on participation in lifelong learning (reference year 2003). A new module is planned to be carried out in 2009 on the entry of young people into the labour market. The results of the latest ad-hoc module on lifelong learning have been extensively analysed in the latest edition of the Progress Report (2006), showing interesting results in patterns of participation in lifelong learning, but no specific indicators on vocational training have been made
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Page 3 and 4: 3 Abstract This paper proposes a ne
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Page 15: In defining the components of such
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measuring the outputs and outcomes of vocational training

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