Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia

Demography and Social statistics division - Social services statistics section

Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, Litostrojska cesta 54, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

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 survey was implemented in Slovenia.

The AES has been implemented in Slovenia four times. The first implementation was in year 2007 as a pilot survey (fieldwork period from September to December), the second survey was implemented in year 2011 (fieldwork period from September to December), the third time was implemented in year 2016 (fieldwork period from September to December) and the fourth time of the implementation of AES survey was in year 2022 (fieldwork period from September to December).

Not applicable.

Number, EUR.

The reference period for the participation in education and training is twelve months prior to the interview.

2022 AES fieldwork: 12 September 2022 to 31 December 2022.

At European level:

Basic legal act: Regulation (EU) 2019/1700

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

At national level:

No specific national legislation

Not applicable.

Regulation (EC) No. 223/2009 on European statistics establishes a legal framework for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics, including statistical confidentiality. The National Statistics Act (OJ RS, No. 45/95 and 9/01) governs statistical confidentiality at the national level.

The threshold rule is used to identify primary sensitive cells in tabular data; no primary sensitive cells are found. Direct identifiers are removed from Secure Use Files (these microdata files are used in the secure room).

The schedule of statistical release is prepared up to one year in advance. Release schedule and dates of issues of hard copies or web series are announced in the Advance Release Calendar publicly accessible on the web page.

Link to the release calendar

Users are informed of a data release by the release calendar. The release policy determines the dissemination of statistical data to all users at the same time. Official statistics are available on the website at 10.30 a.m. on the date announced in the release calendar.

Users can subscribe to e-mail notice regarding release of data via a web form. In this way they receive First Release (web series presenting latest data) free of charge via email. 

Statistical data could be obtained on Statistical Office's web page, via mail, phone and e-mail, by ordering statistical publications and by visiting the Information Centre during office hours.

Every 6 years.

The national results of the AES were published in the form of aggregated information in:

- the First Release (https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/News/Index/11306) 

Not applicable.

More detailed data tables accompanied by methodological explanations were published in the online database - SiStat Database. Data are in the PC-Axis data format. 

Not applicable.

In Slovenia, the entities entitled to obtain the statistically protected micro data include the registered research institutions, registered researchers, and the researchers of government offices.

The statistically protected micro data can be obtained for statistical-analytical purposes, and the scientific research purposes, where the analysis involves a public benefit or something positive for the people of Slovenia.

They have to sign the contract and the statement in which they state they would respect the law on personal data protection and that they would demolish the data in the period of two weeks after the end of the data usage.

Not applicable. 

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Methodological explanations (in English)

Questionnaire (in Slovenian)

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Quality policy of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia.

Not applicable. 

All the requirements of the EU Regulation 2019/1700 are taken into consideration, statistical confidentiality is respected, data are published relatively rapidly, and data and metadata are easily accessible to users etc., these are some of our strengths.

Our main problem (nation-wide) is the decrease of response rates which is a problem in all household surveys using CAPI (or CATI) methodology.

At the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS) for all individual fields of national statistics (for education as well) statistical advisory committees are formed. Members of these committees (external and internal experts) co-operate with SURS to provide quality, timely and relevant statistics. They can also introduce and suggest what kind of data would be desired to collect. At national level our most important user is Slovenian Institute for Adult Education (SIAE). They participated in the preparation of the questionnaire with suggestions, and at their initiative we expanded the set of answers in some places. Depending on their needs, we are also expanding the range of published data tables on our website.

The User Satisfaction Survey has not been carried out for the AES. We regularly get some feedback from the most important data users at the meetings of the Statistical Advisory Committee on Education and Training.

The final dataset covers all variables as requested in the 2022 AES legislation.

Not applicable.

Due to using the appropriate statistical methods for minimizing the errors (e.g. measurement errors, coverage errors, processing errors) we asses that data are good, and they show the picture of the adult education in Slovenia well.

The sampling error is relatively small for main variables (cv= 2.02 for variable "Participation rate in formal or non-formal education and training, age 18-69") but larger for more detailed variables (for example "Participation rate in non-formal education and training, age 25-69, low educational attainment").

There are no additional comments on sampling errors.

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

See items 13.3.1 - 13.3.5 below.

The basis for the sampling frame was the Central Population Register (CPR). It is a high-quality source. The sampling frame was prepared a short time before data collection. We also excluded persons who lived in institutions, so we got very few ineligible units.

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

Not applicable.

Before the implementation of the survey cognitive testing was conducted. According to the results of the cognitive testing some improvements of the questions were implemented in the survey. The effort of the cognitive testing has helped to reduce the measurement errors. Beside this some other work on error prevention was done (e.g. interviewer training, some logical controls were incorporated in questionnaire).

The first contact with the respondent was done with an advance letter which was sent along with the information why it was important that they took part in AES and inviting them to complete the survey online (CAWI). Non-response by CAWI was followed up by CAPI.

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

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

The data entry tool was programmed in Blaise software. Automatic checks were incorporated into the data entry programme with the main objective to avoid data-entry errors.

In some questions, as for instance those on hours spent for education, net income, the relation between age and level of attained education, or between age and year when the respondent started work, etc., certain frames were set giving the anticipated reply. If the reply was not as anticipated, the programme drew the attention of the interviewer to this fact, and they checked the input data and corrected or validated the reply. 

After having entered the replies, the answers were controlled again via the inbuilt controls in SOP programme (the program is prepared by Slovenian methodologists).

As the questionnaire was adjusted so that data collection would run smoothly, we later on had to rearrange the data in line with the Eurostat requirements. Finally the data was inspected by STRUVAL and CONVAL data validation tool according to certain validation rules.

Not applicable.

Only final data were published there, i.e. there was only one data release, on 24 August 2023.

T+7.5 (months)

T+7.5 (months)

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

Not applicable.

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

Some additional variables/information related to COVID-19 were collected, see also table 15.1 “Deviations from 2022 AES concepts and definitions” in annex “SI - QR tables 2022 AES (excel)”.

Not applicable.

There were no major changes in the 2022 AES implementation that have an impact on the comparability with the 2016 AES.

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

Not applicable.

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

The AES 2022 data od participation in formal and non-formal education can also be compared to LFS 2022 data on participation in education. 

There are however some methodological differences between both surveys (proxy, focus of the survey, etc.) and difference in the definition of non-formal education with the in-/exclusion of “guided on-the-job training”.

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.

Estimations refer to the period from September 2022 to the end of December 2022.

Estimation of the costs of the fieldwork: EUR 38918.60 (without WEB coding)

Estimation of the costs of printing the advance letters, reminders and leaflets, postage: EUR 16036.74

Estimation of survey cost (SUM): EUR 54955.34

Cost of the staff involved in administering the survey is not included.

Burden on respondents: participation in the survey is voluntary, no material costs. 

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Data sources: Central Population Register (sex, age, country of birth, marital status), Statistical survey Population structure (DEM-PREB/CL), Statistical survey Socio-economic characteristics of the population and migrants (SEL-SOC), Statistical Register of Employment (occupation, activity), Adult Education Survey questionnaire.

Target population: resident household population aged 18-69. Population in institutions is excluded.

The survey is a sample survey and includes part of the target population, based on which we draw conclusions about the characteristics of the entire population. The basis for the sample frame is the last available state of the population table, which contains all the residents of Slovenia at a certain point in time. We update the frame with the latest available state of the Central Population Register (CRP). The sample is stratified two-level, stratified by statistical regions (12 regions) and size and type of settlement (5 types) and is proportional to the number of persons in each stratum. At the first stage, 1,000 sample units are selected, and then in each selected sample unit 8 persons aged 18 to 69 years. There are thus 8,000 persons in the gross sample.

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

Every 6 years.

The data was collected in a combined manner: partly through an online questionnaire (CAWI) and a field survey of people (CAPI), and some data was obtained from administrative sources.

Selected persons were informed about the survey in advance via notification letters.

First, an online questionnaire was used to collect data. In the field, we later interviewed people who did not answer the online questionnaire, or those who themselves wanted the interviewers to visit them personally, at home. Online and field surveys were partly conducted simultaneously.

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

During the interview the program Blaise automatically points to incorrect values, to the so-called soft (warning) and hard (error) controls. Soft controls (warnings) alert the interviewer to check out the entered data and if it is correct, he confirms it and continues with the interview; if it is incorrect, he corrects it and then continues. Hard controls (errors) alert the interviewer that he entered wrong data. Hard controls do not allow a continuation until the correct answer is chosen.

Same automatic controls in the program are in the CAPI and in the CAWI questionnaire. 

Controls after the interviewing are made by a methodologist. On the basis of requirements lists are made containing the serial numbers of the questionnaires for the specific fields in which these requirements occur. The methodologist checks all these fields and, if necessary, changes and corrects them according to the answers to other questions. Before saving data in the database, data are once again logically checked also taking into consideration Eurostat's validation rules.

Editing concerning non-response of items is made. Missing and in some cases also inconsistent data for affected items are estimated by using the set of the imputation methods. Item non-response is allowed only for household income variables. We used logical imputations and hot-deck imputation techniques.

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

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

No further comments.