European and national policies on Vocational Education and Training (VET) need to be informed by sound and internationally comparable statistical evidence. The VET country statistical overviews are concise, descriptive and user friendly statistical reports. For each country, they quantify and compare key aspects of VET and lifelong learning. The selection is based on the indicators' policy relevance and their importance in achieving the Europe 2020 objectives.

VET indicators for Croatia for the last available year
Index numbers (EU=100)

NB:   The index numbers are derived from data summarised in the table. Data in the table have been rounded to one or two decimal places. The calculation of index numbers is instead based on not rounded data.

Croatia’s performance on a range of indicators selected to monitor progress in VET and lifelong learning across the European Union (EU) is summarised below. The chart compares the situation in Croatia with that of the EU, based on the most recent data available (this differs by indicator). Data in the chart are presented as an index where the EU average equals 100. If the index for a selected indicator for Croatia is 100, then its performance equals the EU average. If the index is 90, its performance is 90% of (or 10% below) the EU average. If the index is 200, Croatia’s performance is twice (or 200%) the EU average. For some indicators, such as early leavers from education and training, a country is performing better if its score is below that of the EU average.

Data on which the index is calculated are presented in the table, which also shows developments over time. A technical definition of each indicator is provided in the annex.

Key points

Access, attractiveness and flexibility

Croatia has a relatively high proportion of upper secondary students participating in IVET (70.4% compared with 47.3% in the EU in 2015). Of all female students in upper secondary education, 63.5% are involved in IVET, which is also above the corresponding rate in the EU as a whole (42.0%).

In Croatia, the share of young VET graduates engaged in further education and training (at 27.3% in 2016) is below the corresponding EU average (at 32.8%). At 3.0%, Croatia has proportionately fewer adults involved in lifelong learning than the EU average of 10.8% (2016 data). This level is markedly below the average target (15%) set by the strategic framework Education and training 2020.

Data from CVTS 2010 indicate the extent to which employees and enterprises engage in CVET. In 2010 23% of all Croatian employees participated in CVT courses compared with 38% in the EU; 15% took part in employer-sponsored on-the-job training, compared with 20% across the EU. In 2010 19% of Croatian employees of small firms participated in CVT courses compared with 25% in the EU. The percentage of enterprises providing training is 57%, lower than the EU average of 66%.

Skill development and labour market relevance

At 0.4% in Croatia, enterprise total monetary expenditure on CVT courses, as a percentage of total labour costs, is half that for Europe as a whole. This is in accordance with the relatively low levels of enterprise participation in training recorded in the 2010 CVTS. But Croatian innovative enterprises are more likely to provide training to support innovation: 58.5% of innovative enterprises compared with 44.8% in the EU (based on CIS data for 2014). The share of short-cycle VET graduates among first time tertiary education graduates (0.1%) is well below the EU average (9.0%) (2015 data). The average number of foreign languages learned in VET in Croatia (1.3 in 2015) is above the EU average (1.0).

The employment rate for IVET graduates (aged 20 to 34) at ISCED 3-4 (72.2%) is below the EU average (78.1%). Their employment rate is higher than for graduates from general education by 5.6 percentage points (close to the EU average premium of 5.7). Their rate is also 36.3 percentage points higher than that for graduates with lower-level qualifications (higher than the EU average premium of 23.4 percentage points). All these employment figures relate to 2016 and exclude young people in further education and training.

Overall transitions and labour market trends

In this section all data refer to 2016 unless otherwise stated.

The percentage of 30 to 34 year-olds with tertiary-level education in Croatia, at 29.5%, is lower than in the EU as a whole (at 39.1%), and stands below the Europe 2020 average target (40%) and the national target (35%). The share of adults with a lower level of educational attainment, at 16.9% after a decrease by 5.8 percentage points since 2010, is lower than the EU average of 23.0%.

Labour market conditions for young people are a bit less favourable than in 2010. The employment rate of recent graduates (72.5%) is lower than the EU average (78.2%). The unemployment rate for 20 to 34 year-olds is at 18.1%, higher than the EU average of 11.8%. The NEET rate is 21.7%, also substantially higher than the EU figure of 15.2%. The employment rate for 20 to 64 year-olds in general (at 61.4%) and for those with a lower level of educational attainment (at 38.9%) are well below the corresponding rates for the EU as a whole (at 71.0% and 53.6%, respectively).

Score on VET indicators in France and in the EU, 2010,
last available year and recent change

EU refers to EU-28, unless otherwise specified. Arrows ↗ or ↘ signal a positive or negative change. Arrow → indicates: no change.

(A) UOE back reconstruction of 2010 values based on ISCED 2011 not yet available. (B) AES 2011, used as proxy for 2010 baseline. (C) 2014 b flags in Eurostat online tables ignored on the basis of other relevant Eurostat metadata. (D) Forecast made in 2016. (E1) Based on 28 countries, with partial information for NL. (E2) Based on 28 countries, with partial information for EL, ES, NL, PL, RO. (E3) Based on 28 countries, with partial information for IT, NL. (E4) Based on 23 countries (missing: DK, EL, HR, IT, PT), with partial information for IE and FR. (E5) Based on 23 countries (missing: DK, EL, HR, IT, PT), with partial information for IE and FR. (E6) Based on 28 countries, with partial information for DK, EL, NL. (E7) Based on 25 countries (missing: HR, IT, UK), with partial information for BE, CZ, DK, DE, EE, EL, LU, NL, PL, SE. (E8) Based on 25 countries (missing: IE, FR, UK), with partial information for BE, EL, LU. (E9) Based on 26 countries (missing: IE, UK), with partial information for DK, DE. (E10) Based on 28 countries. (b) Break after 2010, therefore baseline data not included. (u) Eurostat: ‘low reliability’. (z) Eurostat: ‘not applicable’. (e) Eurostat: ‘estimated’.

Country-specific report details

Country report type
Keywords

Downloads

Statistical overview on VET - Croatia - 2017 edition

EN 184.77 KB

Annex 1 – Short descriptions of indicators and additional notes

EN 74.35 KB

Annex 2 – Reading the Country statistical overviews

EN 39.5 KB

Annex 3 – 2017 Masterfile Country statistical overviews

EN 488.58 KB