Public expenditure on initial vocational education and training (IVET) provides an indication of the scale of investments in IVET made by the State.
Considering this investment over time also signals the extent to which the size of investments has been maintained.
The indicator is defined as public expenditure on vocational education at ISCED 3-4 as a percentage of GDP.
EU averages are estimated; they are weighted averages of available country figures. GDP in current prices is used for weighting.
Figure 16: IVET public expenditure (% of GDP)
Source: Eurostat, UOE data collection on education.
Key points
In most countries for which data are available, spending on vocational education (at ISCED 3-4) accounted for less than 1% of GDP. Based on available country data, the average spending in the EU is estimated to have been 0.54% of GDP in 2014, down 0.04 percentage points in comparison with 2012.
In 2014, public expenditure on IVET (as % of GDP) was highest in Finland (1.20%), followed by Belgium (1.13%). The lowest evels of expenditure on IVET (below 0.40% of GDP were reported for Lithuania, Malta, Ireland, Spain, Cyprus, and Romania. In the non-EU countries with available data, the level of expenditure ranges between 0.48% and 0.70% of GDP.
Table 16: IVET public expenditure (% of GDP)
Arrows ↗ or ↘ signal a positive or negative trend based on more than two data points and of magnitude 0.1 per year or more. Trends based on more than two data points but of smaller magnitude are indicated by →; trends based on two points only are marked ▪. Trends are estimated by means of regression models.
The EU28 values are based on 19 countries (missing: BE, DK, IE, EL, FR, HR, IT, PT, SK).
(F) ISCED 2 vocational is included in ISCED 3 vocational. (b) Break after 2010. Therefore baseline data not included. (u) Eurostat: "low reliability". (z) Eurostat: "not applicable". (e) Eurostat: "estimated".
Source: Eurostat, UOE data collection on education.
Data insights details
