In the EU27, two thirds (66%) of all enterprises with ten or more employees provided vocational training to their staff in 2010, compared with 60% in 2005. The highest proportions of enterprises providing training were observed in Austria and Sweden (both 87%) the United Kingdom (80%), the Netherlands (79%), Belgium (78%) and France (76%), and the lowest in Poland (23%), Romania (24%), Bulgaria (31%), Latvia (40%) and Hungary (49%).

A slightly higher proportion of employees in large enterprises do training

Among those enterprises providing vocational training in the EU27 in 2010, almost half (48%) of their employees participated in such training. The highest proportions of employees participating were observed in the Czech Republic (72% of all employees in enterprises providing training), Slovenia (62%), Luxembourg (60%) and Slovakia (58%), and the lowest in Hungary (27%), Lithuania (31%), Austria and the United Kingdom (both 37%).

In the EU27, a slightly higher proportion of employees in large4 enterprises (49% of employees) do training than in medium-sized4 enterprises (45%) and small4 enterprises (46%).

An average of 25 hours training per participant in the EU27 in 2010

In the EU27, participants in vocational training courses spent on average 25 hours each on training in 2010, an amount which varied significantly between Member States, ranging 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% of total labour costs of all enterprises in the EU27 in 2010, varying from 0.4% in Italy, Latvia and Romania to 1.5% in France and 1.4% in Malta.