26. Does training help people do their jobs better?

VET contributes to improving skills at the workplace and career perspectives.

The indicator below is defined as the number of trained workers reporting that ‘training has helped them to improve the way they work’ expressed as a percentage of all trained workers. Training refers to training sponsored by their employer (or by themselves in the case of the self-employed).

Figure 26: Workers helped to improve their work by training (%)

Source: Eurofound, European working conditions survey.

Key points

Based on 2015 data, most workers who were trained considered that their training helped them improve their way of working: 83% on average in the EU. Percentages in Lithuania, Ireland, Malta, Romania, and Cyprus were above 90% with the latter reporting the highest percentage (93%). In most countries values were above or at 80%. Only Belgium, France and Sweden report percentages below this level, with the lowest share observed in Sweden (71%).

In the non-EU countries for which data are available, percentages were all above the EU average. In Switzerland (91%), Turkey (89%) and Norway (86%) most workers who were trained considered that their training helped them improve their way of working.

Country variations may be accounted for by differences in the aim of the training provided by the employer (for example, some training may be directly aimed at improving the performance of the worker whereas other training may have a wider aim than improving performance in the current job). Due to sample size issues, data for Bulgaria, Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are not presented in the chart.

Table 26: Workers helped to improve their work by training (%)