Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
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).
The main groupings for enterprises are by economic activity (NACE), size group and training/non-training enterprises.
3.3. Coverage - sector
The statistics contain certain selected branches, 20 NACE categories as well as three size categories of number of persons employed: 10-49, 50-249 and 250 or more.
I=NACE 20 Section
II=Section
III=Description NACE rev.2
I II III
B B05-B09 = Mining and Quarrying
C C10-C12 = Manufacturing of food, drink and tobacco
C C13-C15 = Manufacturing of textiles, clothing, leather
C C17-C18 = Manufacturing of paper and paper products
C C19-C23 = Manufacturing of coke and refined petroleum products, chemical products, basic pharmaceutical products and -products, rubber and plastic products, other non-metallic mineral products
C C24-C25 = Manufacturing of basic metals, fabricated metal products
C C26-C28 + C33 = Manufacturing of computer, electronic and optical products, electric equipment, rep. of machinery and equipment
C C29-C30 = Manufacturing of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers and other transport equipment
C C16 + C31-C32 = Manufacturing of wood products, furniture and other manufacturing
D D-E = Electricity, gas, district heating, water, sewerage, waste collection and management
F F = Construction activities
G G45 = Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles
G G46 = Wholesale trade (except motor vehicles and motorcycles)
G G47 = Retail trade (except of motor vehicles and motorcycles)
I I = Accommodation and restaurants
H H = Transport and handling of goods, warehousing and storage
J J = Information and communication
K K64-65 = Banking and finance, insurance, pension funding
K K66 = Activities auxiliary to financial services and insurance activities
L L+M+N+R+S = Real estate activities, business- and scientific activities, engineering activities, administrative services, culture and recreation, sports and other services
Enterprise definition is compliant with Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93.
3.6. Statistical population
Enterprises, divided into three size categories for persons employed and 20 branches groups according to the NACE nomenclature.
The total population is 30553 enterprises.
Variable A2tot (persons employed) refers to 31 December 2020.
3.7. Reference area
Denmark.
3.8. Coverage - Time
1999, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Number, EUR.
The reference year for CVTS 6 is the calendar year 2020.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
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:
No specific national legislation
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Statistics Denmark follows the principles in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and uses the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF) for the implementation of the principles. This involves continuous decentralized and central control of products and processes based on documentation following international standards. The central quality assurance function reports to the Working Group on Quality. Reports include suggestions for improvement that are assessed, decided and subsequently implemented.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
The questionnaire was sent to a selected sample of enterprises. To reach the final result the enterprises were weighted in relation to their size (by number of persons employed) and financial activity (by NACE codes).
8.1. Release calendar
The data became publically available in aggregated form during 2022 through Statistics Denmark’s database StatBank Denmark.
A public release calendar for all data in StatBank Denmark exists in the ‘Scheduled Releases’ section of Statistics Denmark’s website.
All statistics published by Statistics Denmark are readily available from Statistics Denmark’s website and the database Statbank Denmark.
Statistics will be published without any delay and when they are finally compiled. The statistical results will be available to all users at the same time. The statistics are published at 8 a.m. on the day of release.
All statistics are provided with access to documentation of methods, quality and concepts in the form of quality declarations.
Every 5 years.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
The publication date appears in the release calendar. The date is confirmed in the weeks before.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Not relevant for these statistics.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
StatBank Denmark
10.3.1. Data tables - consultations
Not applicable.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Researchers can get access to micro-data by agreement with Eurostat.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Not relevant for these statistics.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not applicable.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
Not available.
10.6.1. Metadata completeness - rate
Not applicable.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Not applicable.
11.1. Quality assurance
Statistics Denmark follows the principles in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and uses the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF) for the implementation of the principles. This involves continuous decentralized and central control of products and processes based on documentation following international standards. The central quality assurance function reports to the Working Group on Quality. Reports include suggestions for improvement that are assessed, decided and subsequently implemented.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Statistics Denmark follows the recommendations on organisation and management of quality given in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and the implementation guidelines given in the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF). A Working Group on Quality and a central quality assurance function have been established to continuously carry through control of products and processes.
The quality of the survey has improved between CVTS 6 and CVTS 5. This is mainly due to the data validation software provided by Eurostat through the platform EDAMIS4.
Some enterprises have difficulties retrieving detailed information pertaining to the quantitative variables of the survey, which are not readily available in Statistics Denmark's own registries.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The survey results are mainly of interest to persons engaged in the educational sector, educational institutions, ministries and business organizations.
Users of the results from the surveys in all participating countries will in the first hand be the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission in monitoring and analyzing the development of Lifelong Learning in the European Union.
Results of the survey are also expected to be used by the government bodies and the social partners for evaluation and possibly for defining new political initiatives in the area of continual vocational training within their own countries.
Besides, data from all countries will be available for researchers for further analysis.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
No user satisfaction survey has taken place.
12.3. Completeness
Data fulfil the demands in the EU-Regulation and in the manuals delivered by Eurostat for the survey.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Not applicable.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Measures have been taken to compensate for the item non response. The information from the enterprises not answering all quantitative questions has been imputed. The enterprises are divided to 60 categories by economic activity (20 NACE categories) and number of persons employed (three size categories). The imputation replaces missing data with data from enterprises with identical characteristics concerning the size and the economic activity of the enterprise. Measures are also taken to reduce unit non-response based on a weight applied to each data record. The method of weighting is based on information on number of persons employed from the register of enterprises and carried out by a regression estimation.
13.2. Sampling error
The CVTS sampling method used was stratified random sampling.
The allocation within each stratum is determined by Eurostat guidelines.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
See table 13.2.1 "Sampling errors - indicators" in annex "DK - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
13.3. Non-sampling error
In Denmark enterprises are registered via a unique ID, CVR-number, which constitutes one legal unit. The sampling of the CVTS 6 is based on these CVR-numbers.
Following the CVTS-definition of enterprises, the enterprises have been instructed to answer the survey pertaining to their own specific CVR-number.
However, the activities of some companies are involving several CVR-numbers, which means that the answers in the interview may in some cases refer to more than one legal unit.
13.3.1. Coverage error
See table 13.3.1 "Coverage error" in annex "DK - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
See table 13.3.1.1 "Over-coverage - rate" in annex "DK - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Several automatic checks were implemented in the web-questionnaire to prevent erroneous answers. The questionnaire was tested by different groups in order to control whether these checks and the filters work correctly.
Guidelines were implemented in the web-questionnaire, so the enterprises could learn about the different concepts and definitions in order to secure a uniform understanding.
Measurement errors exist in questions about number of CVT hours and CVT costs, due to the difficulty in reporting these numbers, since the enterprises don't have these kind of data in their system.
13.3.3. Non response error
Unit non-responses are mainly due to refusal of the enterprises to participate. The collection method used for CVTS 6 was computer aided web interviewing.
The selected enterprises received an advance notification, as well the possibility to see and print the questionnaire before the data collection period.
Technical and professional assistance was available throughout the data collection, both by e-mail and phone.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
See table 13.3.3.1 "Unit non-response - rate" in annex "DK - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
See table 13.3.3.2 "Item non-response - rate" in annex "DK - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
13.3.4. Processing error
In order to code the raw data according to the codebook, SAS Enterprise Guide was used. Before submission of the data to Eurostat, data were validated using EDIT control program.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
No deviation.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Reference period: 2020
Data are published by the end of 2022.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not relevant at this point.
14.2. Punctuality
Countries should transmit data to Eurostat no later than 18 months after the end of the reference year.
Data have been delivered according to relevant regulations.
See table 14.2 "Project phases - dates" in annex "DK - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Not applicable.
Eurostat publishes data for the EU member states for CVTS. The results are comparable across the member states as the same guidelines have been applied. The guidelines were specified by EU.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
See table 15.1 "Comparability - geographical" in annex "DK - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
Some additional variables related to COVID-19 were collected, see also table 15.1.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Some variables included in earlier surveys were disregarded in CVTS 6 which means that a comparison is not always possible between the surveys.
See table 15.2 "Comparability - over time" in annex "DK - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Not applicable.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
There is no direct comparable Danish statistics within this area. However, a few questions related to participation in education and training within various reference periods have been included in the Labour Force Survey (LFS).
See table 15.3 "Coherence - cross-domain" in annex "DK - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
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.
Danish enterprises have participated in the CVTS 6 on a voluntary basis. Therefore there is no estimate of the response burden. However, it is beyond any doubt that the burden was considerably for those companies who decided to answer.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Not applicable.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Not applicable.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
Various statistical procedures were employed to ensure a high data quality. A thorough analysis of internal consistency at record-level was conducted. Based on this analysis and consultation with Eurostat, Statistics Denmark conducted edits of non-logical data at record-level.
Furthermore, an imputation on core variables was applied. A weighting procedure on 60 cells was applied (20 NACE categories and 3 size groups) in such a way that the sample was representative for the target population.
18.1. Source data
Data is collected mainly by a common European questionnaire translated into Danish and sent to a sample of Danish private enterprises. In addition to the data based on the questionnaire a small part of data has been collected from existing data registries of enterprises in Statistics Denmark.
The registry of enterprises was used as basis for the sampling in relation to main branch (20 branches specified in NACE) and number of persons employed specifying three groups: 1) 10-49, 2) 50-249 and 3) 250 or more persons employed.
See table 18.1 "Source data and data collection" in annex "DK - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Every 5 years.
18.3. Data collection
Web-interviews (some telephone follow-up).
See also table 18.1 "Source data and data collection" in annex "DK - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
18.4. Data validation
Data were controlled for consistency concerning the answers to the questions related to persons, hours spent and costs for educational activities in the enterprises. Non-logical answers and inconsistencies in the answers were as far as possible corrected.
18.5. Data compilation
Imputation was conducted on specific variables (so called core variables) specified by Eurostat. A weighting procedure was applied on 60 sampling cells (20 business categories and 3 size groups).
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
See table 18.5.1 "Imputation - rate" in annex "DK - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
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).
Enterprise definition is compliant with Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93.
Enterprises, divided into three size categories for persons employed and 20 branches groups according to the NACE nomenclature.
The total population is 30553 enterprises.
Variable A2tot (persons employed) refers to 31 December 2020.
Denmark.
The reference year for CVTS 6 is the calendar year 2020.
Measures have been taken to compensate for the item non response. The information from the enterprises not answering all quantitative questions has been imputed. The enterprises are divided to 60 categories by economic activity (20 NACE categories) and number of persons employed (three size categories). The imputation replaces missing data with data from enterprises with identical characteristics concerning the size and the economic activity of the enterprise. Measures are also taken to reduce unit non-response based on a weight applied to each data record. The method of weighting is based on information on number of persons employed from the register of enterprises and carried out by a regression estimation.
Number, EUR.
Imputation was conducted on specific variables (so called core variables) specified by Eurostat. A weighting procedure was applied on 60 sampling cells (20 business categories and 3 size groups).
Data is collected mainly by a common European questionnaire translated into Danish and sent to a sample of Danish private enterprises. In addition to the data based on the questionnaire a small part of data has been collected from existing data registries of enterprises in Statistics Denmark.
The registry of enterprises was used as basis for the sampling in relation to main branch (20 branches specified in NACE) and number of persons employed specifying three groups: 1) 10-49, 2) 50-249 and 3) 250 or more persons employed.
See table 18.1 "Source data and data collection" in annex "DK - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
Every 5 years.
No deviation.
See table 15.1 "Comparability - geographical" in annex "DK - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
Some additional variables related to COVID-19 were collected, see also table 15.1.
Some variables included in earlier surveys were disregarded in CVTS 6 which means that a comparison is not always possible between the surveys.
See table 15.2 "Comparability - over time" in annex "DK - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
