Malta has the fewest upper secondary school students enrolled in vocational education, coming in at 12.7 per cent, compared to the EU average of 47 per cent, according to a Eurostat study.

The study, covering 2015, defined vocational education as the training in skills and teaching of knowledge related to a specific trade, occupation or vocation.

Cyprus and Hungary were the only other two countries found to have less than a third of their students enrolled in vocational courses: 16 per cent in the case of Cyprus and 23 per cent for Hungary.

In terms of gender, 52.4 per cent of males and 42 per cent of females pursued vocational education.

Malta, Croatia and Bulgaria were the only Member States to have a higher number of women than men following vocational education courses at the lower secondary level.

The study also looked at the student-to-teacher ratio for vocational programmes at the upper secondary level.

Malta was also found to have the largest disparity, having at least five students more for every teacher in vocational programmes, as opposed to the number in general programmes.

Student-to-teacher ratios were calculated by dividing the number of full-time-equivalent students in each level of education by the number of full-time-equivalent teachers at the same level.

Maltese enterprises incurred some of the highest costs for continuous vocational training, defined as “vocational education provided outside of formal education”.

The total expense was calculated through an assessment of participant labour costs, direct costs for organising the event and total net contributions.

The cost of continuous vocational training was two per cent higher than the total labour costs in Malta, the study found.

Comparatively, the ratio did not exceed one per cent in Latvia, Greece and Croatia.