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 the Iceland 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.

Iceland’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 Iceland 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 Iceland 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, Iceland’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

Data for Iceland are not available for several indicators on access, attractiveness and flexibility.

The share of all upper secondary school students enrolled in IVET in Iceland (32.8%) is lower than the EU average (47.3% in 2015). But the share of students in upper secondary VET enrolled in combined work- and school-based programmes (42.6%) is higher than the EU average (28.4% in 2015). Participation in upper secondary VET giving direct access to tertiary education is very low, at 2.9% of students, against the EU average of 66.7%.

Available data show that a relatively high share of Iceland’s adult population participates in lifelong learning (24.7% compared with 10.8% across the EU). This is also reflected in the participation rates of specific groups: older people (18.9% versus 7.0% in the EU), adults with low levels of education (13.9% versus 4.2% in the EU); and unemployed adults (28.9% versus 9.6% in the EU) are all more likely to participate in lifelong learning than their counterparts in the EU.

Skill development and labour market relevance

Public expenditure on VET as a percentage of GDP in Iceland, at 0.53%, is close to the corresponding EU average (at 0.54%, data for 2014). The average expenditure per student, at 9 100 purchasing power standard (PPS) units, is higher than the 8 400 PPS units in the EU. The percentage of innovative enterprises with supportive training practices is higher than in the EU (49.0% versus 44.8% in the EU, based on data for 2014).

The employment rate for IVET graduates (aged 20-34) at ISCED levels 3-4 (92.3%) is significantly above the EU average (78.1%). Their employment rate is 3.2 percentage points higher than for graduates from general education (below the EU average premium of 5.7) and 8.8 percentage points higher than for graduates with lower-level qualifications (again below the EU average premium of 23.4). All these employment data 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 rate of early leaving from education and training in Iceland is 19.8%, much higher than the EU average of 10.7%. At 48.8% the country has a relatively high share of 30 to 34 year-olds who have completed tertiary-level education compared with the EU average of 39.1%. The proportion of adults aged 25 to 64 who have a low level of educational attainment is, however, higher (at 21.8%) than in the EU (23.0%).

The employment rate for 20 to 64 year-olds is 87.8%, which is high compared with the EU average of 71.0%. The same is true for the employment rate of recent graduates: 94.7% in Iceland compared with 78.2% in the EU. The NEET rate at 4.5% and the unemployment rate of 20 to 34 year-olds at 4.4% are both much lower than the corresponding EU averages (15.2% and 11.8%, respectively). The employment rate of 20 to 64 year-olds with a low level of educational attainment is higher in Iceland (79.5%) than in the EU (53.6%), and has increased since 2010.

Score on VET indicators in Iceland 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 - Iceland - 2017 edition

EN 333.39 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