Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2004)95 - Statistics relating to vocational training in enterprises - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2004)95 - Statistics relating to vocational training in enterprises. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2004)95  |
| date | 17-02-2004 |
In one of the building blocks for developing and implementing coherent national strategies for lifelong learning, 'Sharing of roles and responsibilities', the Communication highlights the responsibility of employers for developing the competencies of their workforce. 'Enterprises should be facilitated to become learning organisations, where everyone learns and develops through the work context...'. Continuing training is increasingly at the core of policies to reduce unemployment and foster productivity and competitiveness in Europe. Skill development through continuing vocational training in enterprises is a crucial part of lifelong learning improving adaptability of the workforce and ensuring lifelong employability. Investment by enterprises in continuing vocational training reflects their willingness to devote resources to responding to the evolution of the labour market. But it also reflects the potential they have for doing so.
The Council Resolution of 27 June 2002 on lifelong learning '...welcomes the fact that the Communication of November 2001 established lifelong learning as one of the guiding principles for education and training, and recognises the relevance of the building blocks for lifelong learning strategies...'.
The Council Resolution of 24 June 2003 on social and human capital underlines the importance of learning and training at work in building social and human capital in the knowledge society. Special reference is made to "...the importance of ensuring that all workers within their specific enterprises and organisations are fully involved and properly trained...which can help facilitate change, and are thus aware of the benefits in terms of improved competitiveness and quality of working life;...". The resolution highlights also '...the problem of well-educated/trained people having more possibilities and, in reality, more access to learning opportunities than less well-educated/trained people, who should most benefit from training, such as women and older workers:...'.
The new European Employment Strategy, agreed on the 22 July 2003, has been revised to better account for the needs of an enlarged European Union, to react better to the challenges facing a modern labour market, and to contribute better to the Lisbon strategy. Two key specific guidelines within the EES tackle the need to improve skill levels through lifelong learning, and to address labour shortages and bottlenecks. The guidelines call upon Member states to address labour shortages and skill bottlenecks. Member States are also encouraged to implement comprehensive lifelong learning strategies in order to equip all individuals with the skills required for a modern workforce, and to reduce skills mismatch and bottlenecks in the labour market. The guidelines state policies will aim to achieve an increase in investment in human resources, in particular through a significant increase in investment by enterprises in the training of adults.
2. This recent focus, combined with the inclusion of education and training among the Community competencies for the first time in the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties, has created an increasing demand for statistics in the area of lifelong learning. In order to monitor lifelong learning as a process and assessing progress towards the implementation of related policies, appropriate and comparable statistical measures need to be developed and produced. For Eurostat, the creation of an integrated European Statistical Information System (ESIS) on education and learning is the goal in trying to measure lifelong learning. Within this framework, information on continuing vocational training provided by enterprises will shed light upon a key aspect of lifelong learning. Information is indispensable to establish and to assess policies and strategies with a view to adapting human resources to a changing economy.
3. The Continuing Vocational Training Survey is the only source that provides internationally comparable statistical data and indicators on continuing vocational training in enterprises both for the Member States and also for the acceding and candidate countries and the participating EFTA countries. The survey results can be used for benchmarking at several levels (EU, country, enterprise) on training provision, on access to and participation in training, on the intensity and the costs of training. The results also provide a description of the context in which enterprises operate, which helps employers and employees to compare their own experiences to wider standards.
Community statistics on enterprise training are important to evaluate the needs for support at European and national levels in an area that benefits employees and employers alike. The Continuing Vocational Training Survey is a unique data source at the international level for analysing enterprise training: the discrepancies between skills supply and demand, between training needs and the forms, fields and volume of training offered, between enterprises' own resources and the use of external providers. The survey opens the way to assess opportunities for enterprise training, especially for disadvantaged groups, older workers and women that are most affected by unemployment. Last but not least the survey provides essential information on the training cost that originate both for enterprises and the State and on methods of funding.
4. The first enterprise survey of continuing vocational training (CVTS1) was conducted in 1994. The survey was part of the action programme for the development of continuing vocational training in the European Community (FORCE) based on Council Decision 90/267/EEC of 29 May 1990. The growing policy interest in information on continuing vocational training in enterprises together with the demand to cover the fifteen EU Member States have led the European Commission to initiate a second survey. At its meeting in November 1997 the SPC gave its approval to the new survey. The second survey (CVTS2) was conducted in 2000/2001 in all the Member States, Norway and nine candidate countries.
The implementation of both CVTS1 and CVTS2 was based on "gentlemen's agreements" between Eurostat and the EU Member States. In CVTS, as in many other areas of statistical activities, such agreements have been an important step for creating the conditions for co-operation in the establishment of the survey and the development of a common survey approach. However, "gentlemen's agreements" cannot be seen as an alternative to legislation adopted under the co-decision procedure, in particular in the domain of enterprise surveys.
Therefore, after the implementation of CVTS2, Eurostat and the EU Member States decided to provide a legal basis for the data collection within the European Statistical System in the form of a Regulation of the European Parliament and Council. The Directors of Social Statistics gave their approval to this approach in their meeting on 22/23 April 2002. The proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and Council takes into account both the discussion in the CVTS2 Working Group (November 2002), comments sent by countries in writing and the discussion in the Education and Training Statistics Working Group (23/24 January 2003). The Directors of Social Statistics gave their approval to the draft at their meeting on 7/8 April 2003 and by written consultation launched on 15 May 2003.
5. The Continuing Vocational Training Survey is one of the main building blocks of an integrated European Statistical Information System on lifelong learning. According to the proposal it is intended to carry out the data collection regularly every five years. The statistics will provide quantitative and qualitative information on continuing vocational training in enterprises completed by basic information on initial training. The aspects covered by the survey will range from training policy, the volume, intensity and content of continuing training through to the cost and funding of training in enterprises.
It is proposed that a survey approach should be developed which aims to reduce the burden on respondents - on enterprises. The regulation will help to put the co-operation with enterprises in the Member States on a stable basis and to improve the quality and the completeness of the data.
6. The Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the development and production of Community statistics on vocational training in enterprises is supposed to establish a common framework for the data collection within the European Statistical System.