6. How many enterprises sponsor their staff training?

The indicator is defined as the percentage of enterprises that sponsored any type of vocational training for their staff (person employed) in 2020 (the year of the survey). These activities include CVT courses and other forms of CVT, such as on-the-job training; job-rotation, exchanges, secondments, or study visits; participation in learning or quality circles; self-directed learning; and attendance at conferences, workshops, trade fairs and lectures. For statistical purposes, training refers to measures or activities, which were planned and organised or supported with the aim of promoting the goal of learning. This excludes random learning and initial vocational training (IVT). Employer-sponsored training activities are those paid fully or partly by the employer or occurring during paid working time. 

Enterprises sponsoring training (%)

Source: Eurostat, Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS).

Key points

On average, it is estimated that 67.4% of EU employers sponsored training for their staff in 2020, but this varies widely across countries, ranging from 90% or more in Latvia and Sweden, to less than 20%, in Greece and Romania. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Compared to 2015, the year of the previous survey participation levels fell by 3.1 percentage points in the EU, overall. The sharpest decreases were in Finland (22 percentage points), while Malta, Denmark, Spain Slovakia all saw falls of between 11 and 27 percentage points. Only in Italy (8.7 percentage points) and Portugal (0.6) did the share of enterprises sponsoring training for their staff increase. Among non-EU countries, data were only available for Norway where the share remained high (at 93% in 2020), although down compared to 2015, and Serbia (24.8%). 

Table 6. Enterprises sponsoring training (%) 

Source: Eurostat, Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS). Notes: b) ‘break in time series’, data are not presented when they are not available and/or do not support sufficiently reliable comparisons across countries or over time.