Malta near top in training hours

Malta ranked second within the EU for the number of vocational training hours, with an average of 40 hours per employee, compared to the EU average of 25 (2010 figures).

Eurostat reported that the number of hours ranged from 14 hours per participant in the Czech Republic and 15 hours in Latvia to 42 hours in Portugal and 40 hours in Malta.

As regards costs, vocational training courses accounted for 0.8 per cent of total labour costs of all enterprises in the EU27 in 2010, varying from 0.4 per cent in Italy, Latvia and Romania to 1.5 per cent in France and 1.4 per cent in Malta.

In the EU27, two-thirds (66 per cent) of all enterprises with 10 or more employees provided vocational training to their staff in 2010, compared with 60 per cent in 2005.

The highest proportions of enterprises providing training were observed in Austria and Sweden (both 87 per cent) the UK (80 per cent), the Netherlands (79 per cent), Belgium (78 per cent) and France (76 per cent), and the lowest in Poland (23 per cent), Romania (24 per cent), Bulgaria (31 per cent), Latvia (40 per cent) and Hungary (49 per cent).

In the EU27, a slightly higher proportion of employees in large enterprises (49 per cent of employees) do training than in medium-sized enterprises (45 per cent) and small enterprises (46 per cent). The proportion for Malta was 66 per cent, 51 per cent and 42 per cent respectively.

These data come from the Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS), which is carried out every five years.