National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria

Education and Culture Statistics Department

2, P. Volov Str.; 1038 Sofia, Bulgaria

The Adult Education Survey (AES) covers adults’ participation in education and training (formal - FED, non-formal - NFE and informal learning - INF). The 2022 AES focuses on people aged 18-69. The reference period for the participation in education and training is the twelve months prior to the interview.

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

• Participation in formal education, non-formal education and training and informal learning
• Volume of instruction hours
• Characteristics of the learning activities
• Reasons for participating
• Obstacles to participation
• Access to information on learning possibilities and guidance
• Employer financing and costs of learning
• Self-reported language skills

For further information see the 2022 AES legislation (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/education-and-training/legislation) and the 2022 AES implementation manual (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/education-and-training/methodology).

- Classification of Learning Activities (CLA, 2016 edition)
- International Standard Classification of Education 2011 (ISCED 2011)
- Classification of Occupations 2008 (ISCO 08)
- Classification of economic activities Rev. 2 (NACE Rev. 2)

AES covers all economic sectors.

Definitions as well as the list of variables covered are available in the 2022 AES implementation manual (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/education-and-training/methodology).

Individuals, non-formal learning activities.

Individuals aged 18-69 living in private households.

The whole territory of Bulgaria was covered by the survey.

AES 2007 - fieldwork period: 01.11.2007 - 30.12.2007

AES 2011 - fieldwork period: 16.11.2011 - 15.01.2012

AES 2016 - fieldwork period: 15.11.2016 - 20.01.2017

AES 2022 - fieldwork period: 12.12.2022 - 17.03.2023

Not applicable.

Number, EUR.

AES 2022 fieldwork period: 12.12.2022 - 17.03.2023.

At European level:

Basic legal act: Regulation (EU) 2019/1700

Implementing act: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/861

At national level:

National Statistical Programme for 2022

Adopted by Council of Ministers Decision 296/09.05.2022, promulgated in State Gazette Issue 37/17.05.2022

Not applicable.

According to the Law on Statistics (Articles 25 and 26).

According to the Law on Statistics (Articles 25 and 26).

Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the National Statistical Institute is published on the NSI’s website.

https://nsi.bg/en/node/44/

In accordance to the Rules for Dissemination of Statistical Products and Services - https://www.nsi.bg/en/node/564/.

Every 6 years.

Press releases were published at the NSI’s website:

AES 2016: www.nsi.bg/en/node/15477/

AES 2022: www.nsi.bg/en/node/20763/

AES 2007: https://nsi.bg/en/node/3385/

Information System INFOSTAT of the National Statistical Institute:

https://infostat.nsi.bg/infostat/pages/module.jsf?x_2=168

Not applicable.

In accordance with the internal (for the NSI) Rules for Provision of Anonymised Individual Data for Scientific and Research Purposes (http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/12152/).

Not available.

Not applicable.

Metadata and methodological notes were published on the NSI’s website: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/4936/

Not applicable.

The national quality report was published at the NSI’s website: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/15103/

A set of quality criteria have been set up within the Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 October 2019.

All criteria within Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 October 2019 were applied.

Overall assessment:

Strengths:

• International comparable data about education and training in Bulgaria.
• Filters and checks implemented in the interviewing application was working well.

Disadvantages:

• Respondents burden – although the new application has improved the fieldwork, the respondents considered the interview as lengthy, requiring a lot of time and caused negative attitude;
• Difficulties for respondents to answer some questions:
  • The 12 months reference period caused difficulties to recall the details of the training;
  • Some respondents had difficulties to understand some of the questions and during the interview additional explanations and interpretations were required;
  • Questions on parental education/economic activity were considered as sensitive for some respondents;

• Problems using the electronic devices when conducting the survey in several small settlements with weak and unsteady internet connection;
• Outdated sampling frame caused a relative high non-response rate.

Main users: European Commission (DGs, Secretariat General), Council; Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, National Agency for Vocational Education and Training; OECD, UN, CEDEFOP.

It is not observed yet.

Dataset covers all variables as requested in the AES legislation (EU regulation 2021/861).

Not applicable.

The overall accuracy is considered as good, significant variations had not been observed.

See also table 13.2.1 “Sampling errors - indicators for 2022 AES key statistics” in annex “BG - QR tables 2022 AES (excel)”.

Sampling design

Three stage stratified sampling:

• on the first stage - the census enumeration units (PSU) were selected by PPS;
• on the second stage - the households were identified by systematic random sampling;
• on the third stage during the fieldwork a random household member in age frame was selected;
• extra stage for selection of an additional member aged 18-24 (if there were any not selected at previous stage).

Stratification

The sampling frame was stratified by administrative-territorial districts in the country (NUTS 3) and the household’s location (urban\rural). As a result 56 strata were formed. Municipalities and settlements were ranged according to the number of their population within each stratum.

Sampling frame

The sampling frame was based on the 2011 Population Census System, which is annually updated with data from the Information System “Demography” data (births and deaths) and changes on territorial or administrative-territorial unit from the National Register of populated places. Migration processes could not be tracked and recorded in the sampling frame. The updates had been performed before the AES sampling. Nevertheless the sampling frame is outdated, but at the moment of the sampling there wasn't a new one available yet.

All calculations of the standard errors, confidence intervals and coefficients of variation were performed with IBM SPSS Statistics v22 software – Complex Sample Analyses Module. Tyler linearization method.

See table 13.2.1 “Sampling errors - indicators for 2022 AES key statistics” in annex “BG - QR tables 2022 AES (excel)”.

See items 13.3.1 - 13.3.5 below.

The sampling frame is based on the 2011 Population Census System.

Shortcomings:

• Although the population frame was updated with the demographic events (births and deaths), the migration processes could not be tracked and recorded;
• Time lag between frame update and the moment of the interview.

See table 13.3.1.1 “Over-coverage - rate” in annex “BG - QR tables 2022 AES (excel)”.

Not applicable.

Actions taken for reducing the measurement errors:

• Stand-alone survey.
• Full pilot testing of the questionnaire.
• Switching from PAPI to CAPI mode for interviewing.
• Face-to-face interviews conducted by staff of the Regional Statistical Offices (experienced with social surveys).
• A special training of the regional coordinators (in charge for the field work) via an online training. Questionnaire, methodological concepts and definitions as well as the new CAPI application had been discussed in detail.
• Detailed manual (instructions) for interviewers.

Measures to reduce unit non-response:

• An official letter to the respondents signed by the President of the NSI;
• Annotation for the start of the survey on the NSI's website;
• Additional visits to the households;
• Non-response survey.

See table 13.3.3.1 “Unit non-response - rate” in annex “BG - QR tables 2022 AES (excel)”.

See table 13.3.3.2 “Item non-response rate” in annex “BG - QR tables 2022 AES (excel)”.

No major processing errors discovered. There were some difficulties for proper classification of the field of education (ISCED-F), especially for non-formal programmes.

Not applicable. The sampling design effect was included into the calculated sampling errors.

The reference period for 2022 AES is the 12 months prior to the interview, with exception for the background variables and language module (the moment of interview).

Dissemination of the national results at the NSI’s website: 14.09.2023.

Not applicable (only final data is disseminated).

See table 14.2 “Project phases - dates” in annex “BG - QR tables 2022 AES (excel)”.

Not applicable.

See table 15.1 “Deviations from 2022 AES concepts and definitions” in annex “BG - QR tables 2022 AES (excel)”.

No additional variables related to COVID-19 were collected.

Not applicable.

See table 15.2 “Comparability - over time” in annex “BG - QR tables 2022 AES (excel)”.

Not applicable.

The results from the national survey were compared to the UOE data collection for participants in formal education. Preliminary analysis was conducted on the consistency between data provided by AES and LFS but additional examinations will be carried out further.

See table 15.3 “Coherence - cross-domain” in annex “BG - QR tables 2022 AES (excel)”.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

AES results for a given data collection round are based on the same microdata and results are calculated using the same estimation methods, therefore the data are internally coherent.

Staff involved in conducting the survey:

5 experts from the NSI's Education and Culture Statistics Department - responsible for survey organization, implementation of methodology, preparation of the national questionnaire and interviewers manual, sampling, training of regional coordinators, data processing, preparation of EU dataset and quality report, data dissemination;

3 experts from the NSI's Information Systems and Application Software Department - responsible for preparation of the interviewing application;

28 regional coordinators from the Regional Statistical Offices - responsible for organization of the fieldwork, training of the interviewers and supervision of the fieldwork.

Average time for answering the questionnaire: 20.6 minutes.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

BG: Изследване на образованието и обучението на населението на възраст 18-69 години

EN: Adult Education Survey (AES).

Participation in the survey was voluntary.

See table 18.1 “Source data” in annex “BG - QR tables 2022 AES (excel)”.

Every 6 years.

AES 2022 was a stand-alone survey. Survey type was Face-to-face – computer assisted (CAPI) interview. Full pilot test of the national questionnaire was performed. Simple random sampling on two NFE activities was performed by the electronic application during the interview.

The initial data checking was carried out at the Regional Statistical Offices (RSO). The data tool (application for interviewing) was designed with additional controls and filters. There were added also extra checking rules by comparing the entered information between different related questions in order to confront possible inconsistent answers.

After finishing the work at regional level, the data was checked and validated again from the experts in the NSI's Head Office. Additional verifications were made at record level.

Finally the data check was performed via the EDAMIS validation service.

Not applicable.

See table 18.5.1 “Imputation - rate” in annex “BG - QR tables 2022 AES (excel)”.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

None.