27 NOV 2009
Data insights

France and Germany lead the way in per student investment in initial vocational education and training

Expenditure on public and private educational institutions per student, at secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary levels of education, 2005
Expenditure on initial vocational education and training helps provide information on the importance and efficiency of the different education system streams. An improvement in public and private investment in VET was specifically called for in the Helsinki Communiqué.


Data source: UOE, Eurostat     (click image for full size)

For available countries, this indicator expresses expenditure on public and private educational institutions in EUR PPS per student in 2005. It groups together secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary levels of education (ISCED 2-4). This indicator might also be complemented by an indicator looking at expenditure as a proportion of GDP, which would give an idea of the relative size of expenditure in VET and general education streams.

Key trends

  • Per student expenditure on secondary and post-secondary, non-tertiary education ranges between 8,300 EUR PPS in Austria and around 1,600 in Bulgaria. It is above 6,000 per student in all available older Member States and below 4,000 in available new Member States.
  • Frequently, per student expenditure on VET is higher than in general education (8 of 13 countries), if marginally so.
  • In France and Germany, in particular, spending per student in VET is far higher than in general education.

The data come from the UNESCO-OECD-Eurostat (UOE) data collection on education systems and are subject to its methodology (Classifications and Manuals).