Relevance
This survey mainly involves the
collection of data on the participation in formal, non-formal and informal
education and training. For formal and
non-formal educational activity, information such as the volume of hours of
instruction/study, specialisation of course, and methods of payment are
obtained.
The Adult Education Survey (AES)
is carried out among all European countries, as part of the EU Statistics on
lifelong learning indicators and is carried out under EU framework regulation,
EC Regulation 1175/2014.
Methodological
description of survey
The AES survey is carried out
once in every 4 years and focuses on people aged 25-64 living in private
households. The reference period for the
participation in education and training is the twelve months prior to the
interview.
A systematic sample of 1,500
private households is selected. Data
collection is carried out via face to face computer assisted interviews, with
the exception of very few interviews which are carried out over the phone.
Accuracy and
reliability of data
Information on the accuracy and
reliability of data can be viewed in a dedicated quality report available on
the NSO’s metadata website.
Timeliness and
punctuality of data
At a national level, a news
release is published every 4 years following the collection of adult education
data pertaining to the relevant reference year.
Such releases are published on the NSO’s website as scheduled in the Advance
Release Calendar with a three-month advance notice.
AES data is also transmitted to
Eurostat within 6 months after the end of the national data collection period.
Accessibility and
clarity of data
The dedicated news release is
made available on the NSO’s website.
Two quality reports, one for
national use and the other for international use, are produced following the
collection of AES data.
Coherence and
comparability/consistency of data
AES is fully comparable as from
2007, that is, since when such survey was conducted.
The AES manual is adhered to for
the whole procedure and this enables geographical comparability among European
Union member states, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) members, and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries.
Comparison of AES results with the data
collected in LFS is possible albeit different methodological procedures exist
between the two sources for the computation of statistics of formal and
non-formal education. Differences in
rates of participation between the two sources may be attributed to differences
in the reference period, being 4 weeks in LFS, and 12 months in AES.
Questionnaire | Metadata