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). Partial funding may include using working time for training and funding 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 national needs we asked the number of participants in other forms of training (B2a-B2e), the proportion of training hours by training subject (C5a-C5l), the proportion of training hours by training provider (C6a-C6g) and important skills and competences in company in the next few years (A12a-A12l). For A12a-A12l respondents ticked yes/no to every item and then three most important one. We also included additional variables C2m and C2f (the number of training hours by gender) to our questionnaire for national needs.
Questions were also added to the questionnaire on the impact of restrictions related to the corona pandemic on CVT in enterprises in 2020.
The statistical unit for CVTS 6 is the enterprise.
Enterprise definition is compliant with Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93.
3.6. Statistical population
18 853 enterprises.
Variable A2tot (persons employed) refers to 31 December 2020.
3.7. Reference area
Both Continent Finland and Åland are included - no under-coverage.
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:
The compilation of statistics is guided by the general act of the national statistical service, the Statistics Act (280/2004, amend. 361/2013). Only the necessary data that are not available from administrative data sources are collected from data suppliers.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
Applying the Finnish Statistical Act: The statistics must be drawn up so that they cannot directly or indirectly identify those that are covered by the statistics.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Applying the Finnish Statistical Act: The material from which indirect identification has been removed may be disclosed to the researcher.
Information can also be disclosed to the ESS authorities and to the Bank of Finland for the compilation of European statistics. The release of data is subject to the permission of the statistical authority.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
The general threshold rule (minimum frequency rule) in enterprise statistics is usually that results in cells less than 5 units are not published.
8.1. Release calendar
First release: 31.10.2022 dealing with participation in course-format training.
Second release: 24.3.2023 dealing with contents, costs of training and effects of COVID-19 on training in enterprises.
An international comparison of key indicators: in May 2023.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not available yet.
8.3. Release policy - user access
Not available yet.
The results are reported in the autumn after the completion of the data (30.6.2022) and the following year.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
No special press releases.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Three web releases:
Key findings of core indicators in Finnish data on 31.10.2022. Short descriptions and online database tables by sector and size.
Other results of core indicators on 24.3.2023. Short descriptions and online database tables by sector and size.
International comparison of key indicators in May 2023.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Online database tables and statistical releases.
10.3.1. Data tables - consultations
Not applicable.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Micro data can be obtained on a special request.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
None.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not applicable.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
National Quality Report in Finnish only.
10.6.1. Metadata completeness - rate
Not applicable.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Not available.
11.1. Quality assurance
1. By calculating case-specific averages for quantitative variables correction procedures can be focused to probable errors (average hours in course training per person employed/participant, average costs of training per training hour/participant etc.).
2. All changes (editing) to the original input data are documented in the SAS program code.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Considering the response burden overall and due to our additional variables, we are quite happy with the results – both in terms of response rate and data quality (reliability, comparability, etc.). Response rate (55.9 %) was higher than in CVTS 5 (54%).
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
According to website tracking of entries to national CVTS releases data users are usually public sector organisations, educational institutions and universities, private companies and labour market organisations - both domestic and foreign.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
We have not conducted user satisfaction surveys specifically for CVTS. Presumably, web publications made (one or more) were generally sufficient for user's needs.
12.3. Completeness
OK, see also annex "FI - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
100%.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The values of the CVTS 6 indicators have significantly decreased from the previous CVTS 5.
Possible reasons for this are the corona pandemic, which has reduced the organization of training and participation in it, as well as the fact that the development of personnel skills and competences in companies is organized in such ways with which data are not collected in the CVT survey.
13.2. Sampling error
The sampling method includes selection of enterprises according to stratified simple random sampling, the gross sample size being 3000. The stratification criteria are three employment size groups (10 – 49, 50 – 249, 250 – ) and twenty NACE Rev. 2 groups, i.e. 60 strata. The allocation follows the formula provided in CVTS 6 manual (4.3.5.) with following exceptions: minimum sample size in stratum 5, strata with size 250 – are selected in full, the strata chosen in full are excluded from the allocation procedure. The estimation is based on the design weights defined by the sampling method adjusted by the inverse of the estimate of the response probability in stratum, i.e. sample size in stratum / number of respondents in stratum. The methods provided by SAS PROC SURVEYMEANS for calculating the coefficients of variation of the key statistics are used in this context.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
See table 13.2.1 "Sampling errors - indicators" in annex "FI - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
13.3. Non-sampling error
See 13.3.1 - 13.3.5.
13.3.1. Coverage error
The sampling frame was constructed at the beginning of March 2021 from the current updated business register with exclusions of some fields of activities (A, O, P, Q). The time point of construction was chosen so that the field work could be carried out as flexible as possible.
See table 13.3.1 "Coverage error" in annex "FI - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
See table 13.3.1.1 "Over-coverage - rate" in annex "FI - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
In unclear situations (a few dozen cases), the number of persons employed and the labour cost data could be verified or corrected via register information.
13.3.2. Measurement error
The respondents were able to print out a paper version of the questionnaire from CVTS 6 website in order to get a broader picture of the variables needed. Web questionnaires seldom provide that possibility. There were also guidelines for filling in the questionnaire and set of Frequently Asked Questions.
13.3.3. Non response error
Considering the response burden overall and our additional variables, we are quite happy with the results – both in terms of response rate and data quality (reliability, comparability, etc). Cost variables (C7 and B5) are clearly the most difficult variables to fill in overall and especially to obtain reliable information.
In order to get a good response rate and cover the phenomenon (training activities) sufficiently we focused an additional reminder to companies with at least 250 employees if there were only few responses by industry and size.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
See table 13.3.3.1 "Unit non-response - rate" in annex "FI - 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 "FI - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
13.3.4. Processing error
All data editing, processing, weighting and tabulations were made with SAS tool.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
The data were submitted to Eurostat on 11.7.2022.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Almost 22 months.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
About 29 months.
14.2. Punctuality
Countries should transmit data to Eurostat no later than 18 months after the end of the reference year. The data was submitted to Eurostat a week and a half late.
See table 14.2 "Project phases - dates" in annex "FI - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
See table 15.1 "Comparability - geographical" in annex "FI - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
Some additional information 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
The values of the CVTS 6 indicators have been significantly reduced from the previous CVTS 5.
Possible reasons for this are the corona pandemic, which has reduced the organization of training and participation in it, as well as the fact that the development of personnel skills and competences in companies is organized in such ways with which data are not collected in the CVT survey.
Starting with CVTS 5, to avoid confusion between the contributions and receipts variables (B5) and the cost variables (C7), we placed the contributions and receipts variables directly after the cost variables. This arrangement has worked better.
See also table 15.2 "Comparability - over time" in annex "FI - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Not applicable.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
See table 15.3 "Coherence - cross-domain" in annex "FI - 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.
The average time spent by the respondents for collecting training data and responding the questionnaire was 150 minutes (median) per response unit.
Question on the Finnish questionnaire: "How much time did you spend, altogether, applying for data and completing the form?"
17.1. Data revision - policy
Not applicable.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Not applicable.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
See table 18.1 "Source data and data collection" in annex "FI - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Every 5 years.
18.3. Data collection
See also table 18.1 "Source data and data collection" in annex "FI - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
18.4. Data validation
1. Checking A2TOT for possible out of scope units. 2. Controlling the presence of CORE variables. Several dozen units went to unit non-response because of missing information. 3. Checking clear magnitude errors in quantitative variables: too many or too little zeros, wrong recording unit (hours/days, thousands/millions). 4. Checking consistency of quantitative variables that are in relation to each other (number of persons employed vs. yearly working hours/labour costs/participants, participants vs. hours, hours vs. costs etc.). 5. Variation of different kind of case-specific corrections that are due to human error in filling out the questionnaire.
18.5. Data compilation
Not applicable.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
See table 18.5.1 "Imputation - rate" in annex "FI - 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). Partial funding may include using working time for training and funding 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 national needs we asked the number of participants in other forms of training (B2a-B2e), the proportion of training hours by training subject (C5a-C5l), the proportion of training hours by training provider (C6a-C6g) and important skills and competences in company in the next few years (A12a-A12l). For A12a-A12l respondents ticked yes/no to every item and then three most important one. We also included additional variables C2m and C2f (the number of training hours by gender) to our questionnaire for national needs.
Questions were also added to the questionnaire on the impact of restrictions related to the corona pandemic on CVT in enterprises in 2020.
The statistical unit for CVTS 6 is the enterprise.
Enterprise definition is compliant with Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93.
18 853 enterprises.
Variable A2tot (persons employed) refers to 31 December 2020.
Both Continent Finland and Åland are included - no under-coverage.
The reference year for CVTS 6 is the calendar year 2020.
The values of the CVTS 6 indicators have significantly decreased from the previous CVTS 5.
Possible reasons for this are the corona pandemic, which has reduced the organization of training and participation in it, as well as the fact that the development of personnel skills and competences in companies is organized in such ways with which data are not collected in the CVT survey.
Number, EUR.
Not applicable.
See table 18.1 "Source data and data collection" in annex "FI - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
The results are reported in the autumn after the completion of the data (30.6.2022) and the following year.
The data were submitted to Eurostat on 11.7.2022.
See table 15.1 "Comparability - geographical" in annex "FI - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
Some additional information related to COVID-19 were collected, see also table 15.1.
The values of the CVTS 6 indicators have been significantly reduced from the previous CVTS 5.
Possible reasons for this are the corona pandemic, which has reduced the organization of training and participation in it, as well as the fact that the development of personnel skills and competences in companies is organized in such ways with which data are not collected in the CVT survey.
Starting with CVTS 5, to avoid confusion between the contributions and receipts variables (B5) and the cost variables (C7), we placed the contributions and receipts variables directly after the cost variables. This arrangement has worked better.
See also table 15.2 "Comparability - over time" in annex "FI - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".
