Relevance
The Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS) collects information on enterprises’ investment in the continuing vocational training of their staff. Continuing vocational training (CVT) refers to education or training measures or activities which are financed in total or at least partly by the enterprise, either directly or indirectly.
The CVTS is part of EU statistics on lifelong learning and is carried out under EU framework regulation, Regulation (EC) No 1552/2005. Implementing details are provided in Commission Regulation (EC) No 198/2006 and its amendments.
The survey aims to compile comparable statistical information on continuing vocational training (CVT) in enterprises, and in particular:
- the strategies of enterprises in training their persons employed,
- the costs of training (CVT courses),
- the training modalities,
- the training intensity (number of participants, training hours), and
- the strategies of enterprises offering initial vocational training (IVT).
Methodological description of survey
The CVTS is conducted every five years among enterprises employing 10 or more persons during the reference year. CVTS 7 refers to the year 2025, while the previous round (CVTS 6) was based on the reference year 2020.
The target population for CVTS 7 consists of enterprises with 10 or more employees operating within the NACE Sections B to S excluding Sections O and P.
The questionnaire is sent by email and in cases when emails of enterprises are not available, the questionnaires are sent by post. For non-responding units, a number of interviewers are also employed to assist respondents compile this data.
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 publication is issued every 5 years following the collection of CVTS data for the respective reference year. These publications are released on the NSO’s website as scheduled in the Advance Release Calendar . The most recent publication for CVTS 6 is available online.
CVTS data is submitted to Eurostat within a period of 18 months from the end of the reference year.
Accessibility and clarity of data
The dedicated publication is available on the NSO’s website.
A quality report is compiled and sent to Eurostat following data collection and a similar report is available on the NSO’s metadata website.
Coherence and comparability/consistency of data
National concepts applied for CVTS are in line with European Union concepts since the definitions outlined in Regulation (EC) No 1552/2005 are applied. In terms of the statistical units which are covered for CVTS, data is collected from legal units which are recognised as having autonomous management and an independent accounts system. At NUTS 1 level the whole country is represented therefore information could be collected from enterprises which are recognized to be legal units by the Business Register.
Comparability over the years may be affected by changes in classifications. The adoption of NACE Rev. 2 to replace NACE Rev. 1.1 in CVTS4 for defining categories of economic activity of enterprises implies that data broken down by NACE from CVTS 2 and 3 cannot be compared with that from in CVTS 4 and onwards.
CVTS results for a given reference year are based on the same microdata and results are calculated using the same estimation methods, therefore the data are internally coherent. Enterprises’ background information is compared to other internal data sources. These include Job Vacancies Statistics (JVS), Structural Business Statistics (SBS) and the Business Register (BR).
