Cedefop has updated its VET Statistical overviews, a valuable tool to help policy makers better understand and assess VET developments in each country. VET statistical overviews bring together a selection of key data on VET, adult learning and skills from different sources. The selection is based on the indicators' policy relevance and their importance in achieving the Europe 2020 objectives.

The updated statistics show interesting developments regarding all levels of VET education. In particular, almost half (47.3%) of upper secondary students in the EU were enrolled in the vocational stream of education in 2015 (slightly down by 1.7 percentage points as compared to 2013). The related gender statistics show that enrolments in upper secondary VET programmes were lower for female (42%) than for male students (52.4%). Also, only 28.4% of upper-secondary VET students were attending work and school-based programmes combined, but a larger share (66.7%) could have, upon completion, direct access to tertiary education.

Regarding young VET graduates, reports show that they are well positioned in the labour market to find a job, with an average EU employment rate at 78.1% (2016 EU average). This was above the corresponding rates for graduates from general education and for those with lower education.

Participation in adult education and training is not rising as expected. In 2016, 10.8% of adults in the EU participated in education and training. Although rates are considerably higher in Denmark, Finland and Sweden, the EU average is still below the targeted 15%. Participation is perceived as beneficial: on average, 83% of EU workers that were trained believe that their training helped them improve their work. However, unemployed and low-educated adults continue to have below average participation rates, respectively 9.6% and 4.2%. Finally, 14% of workers feel that they need further training to cope well with their duties.

Find out more information on the Cedefop website!

See also country-specific reports here.

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