Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia

Demography and social statistics division, Labour statistics section

Litostrojska cesta 54, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenija

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 6 covers all economic activities defined in sections B to N and R to S of NACE Rev. 2. In Slovenia sections O, P and Q are covered additionally.

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).

The statistical unit for CVTS 6 is the enterprise. The enterprise definition is compliant with Council Regulation (EEC) No 696/93.

CVTS 6 covers enterprises with 10 or more persons employed belonging to certain NACE categories (see 3.3).

The total population covered is 8 562 enterprises.

Variable A2tot (persons employed) refers to 31 December 2020.

All the parts of the country are included.

2005, 2010, 2015, 2020

Not applicable.

Number, EUR.

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

Annual Programme of Statistical Surveys (LPSR) (only in Slovenian)

National Statistics Act (OJ RS, No. 45/95 and 9/01)

Not applicable.

The National Statistics Act has clear provisions regarding the observance of statistical confidentiality. Article 34, paragraph 6 explicitly defines that dissemination of collected data by the Office to the users shall be carried out in such a way that the reporting unit involved cannot be identified. Commitment for the observance of statistical confidentiality, signed by all employees has a legal basis in Article 43 of the NSA. It stipulates that in compliance with the law persons employed by the Office or by authorized producers, and persons who occasionally perform certain business for them on the basis of a closed contract and who know the contents of personal and individual data and data on reporting units must maintain and protect such data as confidential. This obligation shall continue also after the termination of employment or after the contract has been terminated. SURS also adopted an overall security policy in 2011, a range of technical and organizational measures based on the recommendations of ISO 27001. The primary goal is to protect and ensure the integrity, availability, usability, accessibility and confidentiality of information and data. The sectorial policy defining the protection of statistical data is the Rules on the Protection of Data Collected through the Programme of Statistical Surveys at SURS.

Statistical disclosure control methods are applied to minimize the risk of disclosure of information given by respondents and to protect the confidentiality of statistical units.

There were safety rules used and cell suppression applied to national publication of data. As no other than control tables were sent to Eurostat, no methods for SDC were applied. SURS expects that Eurostat will use the same safety rules as SURS when CVTS data will be published.

All releases are preannounced and are available on the day of the publication. Releases of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia become available on working days at 10:30 am. The release calendar is available online and enables searching for the titles of already published and announced releases.

The release calendar of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia is available: https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/ReleaseCal

SURS provides access to official statistical data to all users. The latest statistical data are published in the First Release and/or in the Electronic Release (in the SiStat Database) every workday at 10:30 on the date announced in advance in the Release Calendar. They are published in both Slovenian and English. Statistical data are published in aggregate form only. Statistical data that are not published on SURS’s website, e.g. additional data, more detailed data or data structured differently, are available to users upon request.

Every 5 years.

First Release was published on 15th June 2022: https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/News/Index/10391

Regular publication (first release).

The SiStat Database: Education, Further education and training, Continuing vocational education and training:

https://pxweb.stat.si/SiStat/en/Home/GetSearchResultsRedirect?searchQuery=0953901S%20OR%200953902S%20OR%200953903S%20OR%200953904S&searchString=0953901S%20OR%200953902S%20OR%200953903S%20OR%200953904S

Not applicable.

Access to microdata is only possible for research purposes. In enabling this, we take care of statistical confidentiality and personal data protection. For researcher's access to data in the secure room or via remote access, SURS prepares individual microdata databases by removing identifiers. Via Big file exchange system (SOVD), researchers receive only statistically protected microdata that are the result of some statistical surveys conducted on a small sample. SURS enables researchers to access statistically unprotected aggregated data.

Statistical data that are not published on SURS’s website, e.g. additional data, more detailed data or data structured differently, are available to users upon request. They can request the data in the following ways: via the form, by e-mail, by phone or by visiting SURS in person after making an appointment. The data on the website are available free of charge.

Not applicable.

Methodological explanation: https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/File/DocSysFile/8005/09-094-ME.pdf

Questionnaire (in Slovenian only, for information purposes only): https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/File/DocSysFile/11506/SOL-ZAP_2020.pdf

Not applicable.

Quality report (in Slovenian only): https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/Methods/QuestionnairesMethodologicalExplanationsQualityReports 

In performing its tasks, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia follows the general principles of quality management, the European Statistics Code of Practice and the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics. In line with this, SURS strictly adheres to the following principles: professional independence, process orientation, quality of products and services, improvement planning, stimulating working environment, official statistics friendly to data providers, and user-oriented official statistics. 

The most problematic variables were B5aflag, B5a, B5bflag, B5b and C7a to C7d. Enterprises found financial questions (total labour costs, total numbers of hours work, other costs...) very time consuming. There were also some difficulties how to qualify different training courses: as CVT courses or other forms of CVT; we try to include some examples in the questionnaire. Some examples from Eurostat could also help us define it better. In the sample we include only enterprises with 10 or more employees and the number of employees is then in the questionnaire; when we collect all data, we can see some enterprises report less than 10 employees and it is a shame that we have to eliminate those questionnaires with all the reported data. It would be better to have some freedom to include those data, too. Slovenia is a small country and it would be beneficial to use all the data received. We use administrative data when making a sample and enterprises could report a smaller number of employees.

All known user needs are met. We have already prepared data for research purposes. There are some demand for a conference presentation of the results. Other users find data in the SiStat Database: https://pxweb.stat.si/SiStat/en/Home/GetSearchResultsRedirect?searchQuery=0953901S%20OR%200953902S%20OR%200953903S%20OR%200953904S&searchString=0953901S%20OR%200953902S%20OR%200953903S%20OR%200953904S

SURS regularly monitors satisfaction and needs of its users via various channels, with various techniques, tools and approaches that help improve the products and services intended for users. SURS prepares annual reports on the results of monitoring satisfaction and need of its users (in Slovenian only).

All needed statistics is available.

Not applicable.

We estimate that sampling error, measurement error and non-response error have the main impact on accuracy.

We also estimate that the overall accuracy is within the limits of acceptability. 

Stratification was done with two strata variables: the first one was number of persons employed and the second one was activity classification. The systematic sampling method was used to select the sampling units from the frame.

Weights were calculated as a product of sampling weights and weights due to non-response. Sampling weights were calculated as size of strata h divided by size of sample in strata h. Weights due to non-response were calculated as size of sample in strata h divided by number of responses plus number of ineligible units in strata h.

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

See 13.3.1 - 13.3.5 below.

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

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

Not applicable.

We tried to minimalize measurement errors in a way that for CVTS 6 we used an online questionnaire instead of the paper (CVTS 5). There were rules included and errors needed to be eliminated before continuing with the questionnaire. Sometimes enterprises put a fictitious number (for example "1") for C7A to C7D or for C1TOT because they had difficulties collecting the real number. There were not many cases but we used additional criteria to recognize these cases and we called the enterprises to get the real number. When this was not possible, we imputed data.

SURS used different tools to reduce unit non-response (advance letters before the fieldwork began, two reminders after the deadline for reporting, phone contacts if reporting units didn't respond to the reminders). 

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

We don't have item non-response because all data has to be filled in.

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

There were no processing errors.

Not applicable.

First Release: T+531 (15.6.2022)

Electronic Release: T+589 (12.8.2022)

T+531

T+531

All data are published according to the Release Calendar. 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 "SI - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".

Not applicable.

All data are comparable.

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

Some additional variables/information related to COVID-19 were collected, see table 15.1.

Not applicable.

All data are comparable.

See table 15.2 "Comparability - over time" in annex "SI - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".

Not applicable.

Coverage differences between SBS and CVTS can be seen especially in NACE 18, NACE 19 and NACE 20 because SBS did not cover sections K, R and S96 until 2021. SBS observes only companies with predominantly market activity (SKIS 13 and 15 are excluded); the average of the year is calculated and presented; all subjects that are in the Business Register are covered, including registered natural persons.

See table 15.3 "Coherence - cross-domain" in annex "SI - 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.

Number of working hours spent by the staff of the Statistical Office: 5 653

Staff costs: 99 994 €

Data collection costs (printing and postal charges): negligible

The average burden of the reporting unit (time spent to collect and fill in the questionnaire): 91 minutes (= 1.52 hours)

The total time spent on filling in the questionnaire is estimated to be 2 489 hours.

Number of reporting units that had to fill in the questionnaires: 2 009 (gross sample)

Number of reporting units that submitted the data: 1 641 (net sample)

Number of questionnaires per unit: 1

Cooperation of the reporting units was obligatory. For CVTS 6 we prepared online questionnaire which is also the main reason for additional staff costs and working hours. We estimate that the burden has decreased. ICT and administrative sources are effectively used. We have automatic methods that we use when exact data are from enterprises are not available. 

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The data set is based on a survey. Sampling frame = 8 641; gross sample = 2 009; net sample = 1 641. The systematic sampling method was used to select the sampling units from the frame.

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

Every 5 years.

When we prepared the gross sample, we launched an online survey. We included logical and other controls to minimize errors. Non-response was regularly monitored and we encouraged enterprises to respond and send the questionnaire. We also provided additional help to respondents when needed.

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

After completing the fieldwork the data was transferred to Blaise. There we checked additional logical controls and when necessary we contacted the enterprise to check the accuracy of the reported data. This proved to be a very good practice, as the companies mostly communicated the right data afterwards. After that, the data was entered to Oracle and edited.

We use data editing, imputation and non-response weighting. After entering data into Oracle we edit data according to Eurostat validation rules, the Codebook and our logical controls. Then the imputation is made where we know that some data are not correct (information from the response units). We imputed some data for variables A4, A5, C2F, C2M, C3E, C3I, C4, C7A, C7B and C7C. After that we made some editing especially where sums did not match. The weighting procedure was determined based on the sample design and unit non-response. The final weight of the unit is thus the product of the weight due to the probability of selecting the units and the weight due to non-response.

See table 18.5.1 "Imputation - rate" in annex "SI - QR tables CVTS 2020 (excel)".

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

No comment.