Key findings
Continued learning throughout life is necessary to keep up with rapid, social and technological change.
The modest ET 2020 target calls for at least 15 % of 25-64 year-olds to participate in learning110.
At 10.8 %, the EU remains over 4 pp below the target, with the rate of participation practically unchanged since 2015.
2.5.1
Skills, education and labour market outcomes
The level of education and training attained is one of the key predictors of long-term success in the labour market — the likelihood to be employed, the amount of salary and the quality and social attractiveness of the job. This link has often been explained by the fact that more education and training provides broader and better knowledge, which is then rewarded by employers. Indeed, the PIAAC has shown, at least for the particular skills measured in the survey — notably literacy and numeracy — that higher skills are linked both to higher education levels and better employment outcomes. Education systems differ in their capacity to deliver those skills — in some cases to such an extent that someone completing an upper secondary school in one country acquires the same skills of a tertiary graduate in another country111. Investigating the link between skills and labour market success would therefore offer interesting insights. However, the information available at the moment is very limited and therefore the level of educational attainment remains the primary point of reference in measuring human capital. As a result, it is still the best measure to explain differences in labour market and social outcomes between individuals.
There are large differences from country to country in terms of the educational attainment of the adult population. Moreover, although in all countries a higher education level leads to better labour market outcomes, there are substantial differences in those outcomes. These differences are largely driven by the economic situation in each country, the differences in industrial profiles (which demand different skills), and in education systems’ effectiveness in providing graduates with qualifications, knowledge and skills attractive for the labour market.
Figure 43 — Adult (25-64) employment rates by education level, 2016
Source: Eurostat, EU Labour Force Survey, [lfsa_ergaed].
110 The indicator refers to persons aged 25 to 64 who stated that they received education or training in
the in the four weeks preceding the survey (the EU Labour Force Survey).
111 OECD (2013) OECD Skills Outlook 2013: First Results from the Survey of Adult Skills. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% SK HR BG PO LT CZ SI BE EL IE IT FR HU RO ES AT EU FI MT LV CY LU DE NL EE UK SE DK PT
Figure 43 demonstrates that employment rates of adults with high educational attainment are quite similar across countries, while employment rates of those with medium-level and particularly with low-level formal qualifications show much more diversity.
2.5.2
Adult participation in learning – performance in the ET
2020 benchmark
In 2016, adult participation in learning stood at 10.8 % (a mere 0.1 % up from 2013) with rates by level of education practically unchanged: 4.2 % (4.5 % in 2013) among the low-qualified, 8.8 % (8.8 % in 2013) among the medium-qualified and 18.6 % (19.0 % in 2013) among the highly qualified112.
Figure 44 shows that in all countries the majority of adult learning is non-formal.
Figure 44 — Participation in adult learning (ET 2020 benchmark) by different types of learning, 2016
Source: Eurostat, EU Labour Force Survey 2016, special data extraction. Data about both types of learning are not available for Cyprus, Lithuania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania and with low reliability for Croatia, Hungary and Latvia.
Access to learning also depends to a certain extent on the size of the employer. The rate of participation in learning by employer size is presented in Figure 45. However, differences within countries in terms of access to learning opportunities by company size are of very similar scale. In other words, the share of adults having participated in training in the previous 4 weeks is between 5 and 10 pp larger in large companies than the corresponding share in very small companies, and slightly larger in countries with overall higher rates of adult learning participation.
112 Although the benchmark is stable in the last year of monitoring and over the longer term, its value
varies considerably in some countries from year to year. These changes, mainly upwards of about one- and-a-half times or even three times, are seen mainly in the field of non-formal education. Such rapid growth has occurred in the majority of countries where participation exceeds the EU average.
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% SE DK FI FR NL LU EE AT UK SI EU PT ES CZ DE IT MT LV BE CY HU IE LT EL PL HR SK BG RO Non-formal Formal Both Total 2013 Target
Figure 45 — Adult learning participation rates by the size of employer, 2016
Source: Eurostat, EU Labour Force Survey 2016, special extraction. Note: 1 to 10 persons not available for Bulgaria and with low reliability for Croatia, the Netherlands and Romania.
These differences are therefore likely to be driven not by different participation rates by employer size within countries, but rather by the different learning environments across countries that incentivise or inhibit adult learning provision for both large and small employers. Numerous factors can influence those between-country differences. These include:
- the scope and provision of obligatory health and safety training courses;
- the presence of training funds and other collective arrangements to promote learning; - obligatory training leave regulations or available training leave rights by the employees; - the overall industrial, technological and cultural environment (E.g. the reluctance of
employers to hire elderly workers can also hinder the motivation to engage in lifelong learning113.
All these elements influence employers’ and individuals’ choices, and the potential rate of returns of participating in or providing training.