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5. Need for adult education and training has decreased

Forty-tree per cent of Finnish residents aged 18 to 64 (excl. pensioners and students without work experience) felt they needed more professional skills or career advancing training. The need for further professional training has decreased clearly from the beginning of the millennium, as in 2000 more than every second working-age person (54 per cent) felt they needed more training.

The need for further professional training has decreased both among men and women (Figure 1), but the decrease is more marked among men. In 2000 more than every second man felt he needed career of professional skills advancing further training, whereas six years later such a need was reported by only four out of ten men. For women the decrease in the need for further professional training decreased slightly more moderately.

Figure 11. Need for professional adult education by gender in 2006 (population aged 18 to 64, excl. pensioners and students without work experience)

Persons with high level basic education as well as white-collar employees and students felt more often than average that they needed more professional skills or career advancing training. The need for professional adult education fell clearly with age. The least need for further training was felt by persons aged 55 to 64.

Recent experiences of professional adult education had a clear connection with reported need for further training. While roughly one-half of the persons who participated in professional adult education during the six preceding years felt they needed more professional skills or career advancing training, the respective proportion among persons who did not participate in training was 38 per cent.

Even though the need for further professional training has decreased in 2000-2006, the benefits of such training were still assessed as high. More than six out of ten 18 to 64-year-old Finns belonging to the labour force assessed further professional training would help them in getting a new job, in managing their tasks at work and in advancing their career. Additionally, a good one-third reckoned further professional training would help in keeping a job.

As regards the various fields of education and training, the need reported most often was for training in economics and law. Roughly one-third person in need of further professional training reported needing training in these fields. One-fifth of the persons in need of education and training reported needing further training in the fields of technology, manufacturing and construction, IT as well as social and health care.

Table 4. Need for further professional training by contents of education and training in 2006 (population aged 18 to 64 who have expressed a need for further professional training)

Contents of education and training	%
Economics and law	31
Technology, manufacturing and construction	21
Information technology	21
Health and welfare	19
Foreign languages	13
Social and behavioural sciences, journalism	12
Services, hobbies, safety	12
Arts	9
Other fields, total	28

NB! Summing up the proportions does not give 100 per cent, as the respondents indicated 1-5 kinds of education and training.

Every third Finnish resident aged 18 to 64 felt a need for or was interested in receiving education or training related to free time or hobbies in 2006. The need for such education and training was on level with that recorded in the beginning of the millennium. The groups that reported the most need for education and training related to free time or hobbies were women, persons resident in urban municipalities, persons with high level basic education, white-collar employees as well as entrepreneurs.

Source: Adult Education Survey 2006, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Kirsti Pohjanpää (09) 1734 2604, Helena Niemi (09) 1734 2488, Timo Ruuskanen (09) 1734 3620

Director in charge: Riitta Harala

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Updated 31.12.2008