Czech Statistical Office

Department of Social Development Statistics

Na padesátém 3268/81, Praha 10, 100 82, Czech Republic

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 (directly or indirectly). Part financing could include the use of work-time for the training activity as well as financing of training equipment.

Information available from the CVTS is grouped around the following topics:

- Provision of CVT courses and other forms of CVT (training/non-training enterprises)

- CVT strategies

- Participants in CVT courses

- Costs of CVT courses

- Time spent in CVT courses

- Characteristics of CVT courses

- Assessment of CVT activities

The CVTS also collects some information on initial vocational training (IVT).

For further information see the CVTS 6 legislation (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/education-and-training/legislation) and the CVTS 6 implementation manual (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/education-and-training/methodology).

The main groupings for enterprises are by economic activity (NACE), size group and training/non-training enterprises.

CVTS 5 covers all economic activities defined in sections B to N and R to S of NACE Rev. 2.

Definitions as well as the list of variables covered are available in the CVTS 6 implementation manual (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/education-and-training/methodology).

Some definitions slightly differ from those required in the international version of CVTS 6 questionnaire. See section 15.1 for more details.

Every legal person and natural person in an entrepreneur position and every organisational unit of a state provided it is an accounting entity.

Enterprise definition is compliant with Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93.

43517 enterprises, no deviations from the international concept.

Variable A2tot (persons employed) refers to the annual average 2020.

The whole area of the Czech Republic is covered.

The reference year for CVTS 6 is 2020.

Reference years for previous waves are: 1999 (CVTS 2), 2005 (CVTS 3), 2010 (CVTS 4) and 2015 (CVTS 5).

The Czech Republic did not participate in CVTS 1.

Not applicable

Both absolute values (e.g. number of persons, hours, Euros) and relative values (in %).

The reference year for CVTS 6 is the calendar year 2020.

At European level

Basic legal act: Regulation (EC) No 1552/2005 of the European Parliament and the Council

Implementing act: Commission Regulation (EU) No 1153/2014, amending Commission Regulation (EC) No 198/2006

At national level:

Act No. 89/1995 Sb., on the State Statistical Service, as amended

Act No. 332/2020 Sb., on population and housing census 2021

Not applicable.

Strict internal rules are in place at the Czech statistical office to protect data. They are set mainly in the following documents: the CZSO Statistical Confidentiality Policy and the CZSO Security Policy. These policies lay down principles of confidential statistical data protection as well as security of operated important and critical information systems in accordance with the relevant legal regulations, especially:

Act No. 89/1995 Sb., on the State Statistical Service, as amended,

Act No. 365/2000 Sb., on Public Administration Information Systems and the amendment of certain other acts, as amended,

Act No. 181/2014 Sb. on Cyber Security.

Act No. 110/2019 Coll. on personal data processing.

Besides, there is a regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics and repealing Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1101/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities, Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 on Community Statistics, and Council Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom establishing a Committee on the Statistical Programmes of the European Communities, as amended.

The CZSO ensures a strict protection of individual data. A system of rules, documentation, and relevant organisation structure ensuring security and integrity of confidential data is put in place. Processes, in which individual data are treated, are secured by instruments of physical protection, devices of information and computer technology, usage of progressive encrypting methods and devices, systems of logic protection, and sound procedures of logistics administration of data. The methods of confidential data protection are revised and continuously improved. All employees of the Office are obliged to keep confidential statistical data, which they have acquired knowledge of, in secrecy. Confidentiality duty lasts even after the employment contract has expired or appropriate works have been finished.

For further information see: www.czso.cz/csu/czso/16_secrecy_and_confidential_statistical_data_protection 

A few basic CVTS 6 national results were released in November 2022 in the Statistical Yearbook of the Czech Republic.

A more detailed stand-alone research report consisting of both analytical report and table annex will be made public in February 2023. 

Not applicable.

A few basic CVTS 6 national results were released in November 2022 in the Statistical Yearbook of the Czech Republic, both in printed and electronic version (for the electronic version see https://www.czso.cz/csu/czso/24-education-vu83iw5r09).

A much more detailed stand-alone research report consisting of both analytical part and extensive table annex will be released in February 2023. These results will be available on our institutional website (see https://www.czso.cz/csu/czso/education).

Should the dataset be made available for external users it will be anonymized and only variables that do not allow for individual answers detection will be included. For more information on Secrecy and Confidential Statistical Data Protection see www.czso.cz/csu/czso/16_secrecy_and_confidential_statistical_data_protection

Every 5 years.

There is no CVTS 6 news release available yet.

CVTS 6 publication will be available in February 2023.

Older CVTS publications:

• "Vzdělávání zaměstnaných osob 2015" (available on CZSO website)
• "Další odborné vzdělávání zaměstnaných osob 2010" (available on CZSO website)

Some tables will be available in CZSO online database in the future.

CZSO online database website link is: https://vdb.czso.cz/vdbvo2/faces/en/index.jsf

Not available yet.

Anonymized microdata can be disseminated. Pursuant to the provision of the Section 17 of the State Statistical Service Act, confidential statistical data may be provided for statistical purposes or for the purposes of scientific research. The relevance of the data for applicant's purposes is examined every time. Data may be provided only in the form, which does not allow direct identification of the reporting unit the data pertain to. For that purpose the data are anonymized in the necessary extent in order to minimize the risk of disclosure via indirect identification of the statistical unit concerned.

CVTS 6 outputs (tables, charts and an analytical and methodological part of national report) are not available yet.

Not applicable

The description of the CVTS 6 survey methodology will be part of a national report. Apart from that every variable including its definition is carefully and in detail described in the national "SMS" database.

Not applicable.

The CVTS 6 quality management is documented in the "technical report", i.e. a document that is elaborated at the beginning of each self-administered data collection realized at the Czech Statistical Office. This document describes in detail the time schedule of the survey, responsibilities of every department involved in the process of survey realization, the questionnaire and requested logical (consistency) data checks, information on sampling, technology of data handling and mining and other information that may be of use to anyone cooperating on the CVTS 6 project at the national level. Other outputs were produced during the data collection phase to monitor the overall results and find "suspicious" values which were then verified.

Although differences exist between the national and standard version of the CVTS questionnaire, questions in the national questionnaire were formulated in a way to make sure that all variables of the codebook are included or can be derived from collected variables. However, different sequencing of questions in the questionnaire and separation of some questions into detailed questions can to some extent influence the way they are understood. Preparation of the electronic version of the questionnaire was very systematic and with use of specially developed programmes to avoid erratic errors. The electronic data collection ensured that in most cases there was no need of repeated data entry which eliminated retyping mistakes. It also enabled to pre-set a lot of checking rules (consistency checks, plausible values checks, missing values checks etc.) and notify respondents in case of dubious answers (with possible faults) or missing answers etc. right at the end of filling in the questionnaire. According to these checking rules results a quality score (EQA) was counted that indicated the level of questionnaire quality. Having in mind that some enterprises could have had problems with using electronic version of the questionnaire, a possibility to fill in a paper questionnaire was offered so that a representative sample of various enterprises would be accomplished. Care was taken to collect as much data as possible in the best quality possible and enterprises were contacted in case of any discrepancies or missing answers. The collected data were thoroughly scrutinized and checked for mistakes. In each step of data collection (and in each step preceding and following the data collection) several employees of the Czech statistical office were involved. The responsibilities were distributed in a way that in every step the most knowledgeable person had to approve the quality of the work done. The key persons have long standing experience with running similar business surveys so every step of the process of the data collection was well assessed.

We consider the data to be of a good quality. However, as written above, different sequencing of questions in the questionnaire and their separation into detailed questions could, to some extent, influence the way they were understood. This can be considered a disadvantage, however, it better reflects the national context and needs of various interest groups. Maximum care was taken not to misinterpret used concepts and definitions, and to collect all variables requested from Eurostat (according to the international codebook).

Perhaps the most important are social actors (e.g. employers' associations, trade unions) and policy makers at European level (e.g. European Commission, European Parliament, other European agencies). Other users may consist of policy makers at national level (e.g. ministries), International organisations (OECD, UN) and other public institutions.

The most important indicators would probably be: participation in CVT activities, time spent in them and expenditures on CVT activities. For some users, the share of enterprises that usually employ IVT participants may also be an important indicator.

Consultations with representatives of various interest groups were carried out about what information needs to be collected and about the design of the questionnaire.

All NACE sectors, enterprise size groups and variables requested in the CVTS legislation are covered.

Not applicable

The accuracy measured by the CVTS is acceptable and improves in time. The response rate is quite high considering the complexity of the survey.

Sampling methods: Stratified simple random sampling without replacement. Census for enterprises over 249 persons employed and in section K to all enterprises by business register. Sample was stratified by NACE_SP and SIZE_SP as mentioned in CTVS 6 manual. NACE codes are later updated by information collected in the statistical survey.

Estimation/grossing up procedures: For grossing up we use post-stratification by NACE_SP_x and SIZE_SP as detailed as sampling strata. SIZE_SP is based on variable N_EMPREG which is a proxy variable for persons employed (A2tot). N_EMPREG is based on number of social security policyholders by administrative data. NACE_SP_x is based on updated NACE codes of enterprises during the survey.

The initial weights in stratum h are: w_h=N_h/n_h, where N_h are the number of enterprises in the frame in stratum h, n_h number of enterprises in sample from stratum h. In the next step we treat for non-response wNR_r=N_h/n_h/(n_h/m_h)=N_h/m_h, where m_h is the number of responding enterprises in stratum h.

See table 13.2.1 "Sampling errors - indicators" in annex "CZ - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".

No additional information.

Business register was used to draw a sampling frame and a sample. Information on the business register is available at www.czso.cz/csu/res/business_register. The sampling was done in December (with data available on 2020-11-30), however, some data (e.g. on employed persons) referred to September 2020. It also did not reflect creation of new enterprises or their abolishment provided it was done in December.

See table 13.3.1 "Coverage error" in annex "CZ - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".

See table 13.3.1.1 "Over-coverage - rate" in annex "CZ - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)". 

Not applicable.

The CVTS questionnaire was prepared with a great care concerning precise translations, intelligibility etc. It included many consistency checks, plausible values checks, missing or superfluous answers checks etc. programmed in the electronic version of the questionnaire (both online version and PDF version). If respondents supplied questionnaires without correcting all drawbacks the enterprise was contacted and an effort was made to improve the quality of the questionnaire as much as possible. Only questionnaires fulfilling the minimum quality standard were included in the data matrix.

A significant effort was made to have all questions from all enterprises answered and special emphasis was put on core variables (for which no imputation is permitted according to the CVTS manual, annex 7) but also key variables (for which imputations are desirable) that are of special interest too. As stated above, a lot of telephone or e-mail contacts were made in order to improve the quality of the data, including correcting possible faults and filling in any missing answers (even if the answers were just a company's estimate of true situation). Overall we are able to say that the missing values rate in all variables requested from Eurostat is very small or equals zero and thus have just a negligible or no impact on the statistics counted from the data.

Non-response treated by re-weighting. 

See table 13.3.3.1 "Unit non-response - rate" in annex "CZ - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)". 

Item non-response was not treated by imputation procedures. Questionnaires without all core items were treated as unit non-response.

See table 13.3.3.2 "Item non-response - rate" in annex "CZ - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".

CZSO staff applied large set of control checks (logical checks, checks on acceptable range of different variables, ratios etc.) during the data capture process. The set of logical checks is defined in a stage of survey preparation. Global quality score (EQA) is computed for each questionnaire during the data capture. We also made extra logical checks and survey staff then corrected or verified errors or suspicious values. Weighting was carried out in in-house Oracle procedure where two-dimensional GREG calibration estimators are implemented. The CV was computed by another in-house Oracle procedure by using Taylor approximation for ratios.

Not applicable.

The reference year is 2020 and the data were transmitted as required by Eurostat.

The national results will be available in the end of 2022 or at the beginning of 2023.

We expect to publish all at once (see information on first results release). However, some articles may be made public later.

Countries should transmit data to Eurostat no later than 18 months after the end of the reference year.

See table 14.2 "Project phases - dates" in annex "CZ - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)". 

Not applicable.

See table 15.1 "Comparability - geographical" in annex "CZ - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".

Not applicable.

Most of national questions/items included in CVTS 5 were excluded in CVTS 6.

Question D3 (on factors limiting the provision of CVT) was split into two questions (covid reasons and other than covid reasons) and a "covid" item was also added to question E1 (on reasons not to provide CVT). Please, see the translated version of our national questionnaire (in annex).

For more information, see table 15.2 "Comparability - over time" in annex "CZ - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".

Not applicable.

See table 15.3 "Coherence - cross-domain" in annex "CZ - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

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.

The range and detail of data collected is not limited to what is absolutely necessary according to CVTS manual. However, as it is, it provides users with a more comprehensible picture of CVT activities in companies and is of better use for enterprises, social actors (e.g. trade unions) and policy makers.

Other surveys are used for some items (Labour cost survey for A4 and A5) and may be used for comparison and interpretation of survey results (e.g. Adult education survey).

Data from business register are used for sampling.

To facilitate data collection, online and PDF questionnaires are used.

If an enterprise cannot provide us with precise numbers, it is asked to estimate it.

The overlap is minimized by using Labour cost survey for items A4 and A5.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

See table 18.1 "Source data and data collection" in annex "CZ - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".

Once every 5 years

See table 18.1 "Source data and data collection" in annex "CZ - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".

The data was collected mainly online and via interactive PDF forms, only small part of questionnaires (where necessary) was distributed in a paper form. As far as online and PDF questionnaires are concerned, a lot of checking rules (consistency checks, plausible values checks, missing values checks etc.) were developed and programmed to control the internal consistency of answers in the questionnaire and to check for possible values. If an enterprise answered in a way that allowed for any possible mistake that we were able to recognise, it was contacted by our employees to check why the answer was different from expected values to make sure there was no mistake in data entry or misunderstanding of the relevant question. Such companies were contacted straight away, i.e. as soon as possible after submitting the questionnaire so that they still could remember their answers. 

In the case of a paper version of a questionnaire the collected data were entered into an electronic database and (as with the online or PDF data collection) it was checked for any possible mistakes identified via programmed set of controls. Again, in case of mistakes the company was contacted.

Apart from that, all data collected were organized already during the data collection process into so called "control tables" with key indicators to check for any suspicious features. After the data collection was over, the data were gathered into a matrix and again analyzed and scrutinized for any discrepancies or missing answers.

We believe that we reached a good data quality. However, some parts of questionnaire were more problematic regarding error rate than others. Among the more problematic were questions on discriminating among various forms of training and filling in numbers of participants in part D203, D204, D205 and questions on expenditures in D207 (see the Czech version of the questionnaire in annex).

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.