Home > Statistics > CVTS, Continuing vocational training > 1999 > Summary

Summary

Private sector enterprises, excluding those operating in agriculture and forestry, employing at least 10 persons in 1999 formed the target population of the survey. Enterprises meeting these criteria numbered 13,451, of which 3,100 were drawn to the survey sample. Responses were received from 1,708 enterprises, bringing the net response rate to 57 per cent.

Three-quarters of Finnish enterprises had organised course-format personnel training for their employees in 1999. When other forms of training, such as guidance on the job, job rotation, self-education, conferences or the like, are taken into consideration, the proportion of enterprises having sponsored personnel training goes up to 82 per cent. Service sector enterprises had organised both course-format training and other training slightly more frequently than enterprises in the industrial sector. All enterprises employing more than 250 persons had arranged course-format training for their personnel.

Half of the employees, that is, approximately 507,000 wage and salary earners, had participated in training courses during the reference year. The proportional figures on this were again slightly higher in the services sector than in industry. Employees' opportunities to participate in training grew as the personnel size of enterprises increased.

The average length of attendance to employer-sponsored vocational training in 1999 was three days, or 18 hours, per employee. There was very little difference between the studied sectors in this, but a more detailed classification revealed clear differences between individual branches.

Women had participated in training slightly more often than men, but the difference in training hours per employee was only minor - 17 hours for women as against 18 hours for men.

The three main fields on which training was provided were information technology and computer use skills, personal skills in working life, and production and technology. Almost one half of the course format training hours in 1999 were given in these fields. The two commonest training fields in the services sector were sales and marketing and information technology, whereas in the industry sector the contents of the training related most often to planning, production and technology and personal skills in working life.

The approximate overall cost of course format training per employee was EUR 760. The cost fluctuated considerably by activity branch, whereas the difference between the sectors was minor.

Wages and salaries of participants in training made up the largest single item of the overall cost, 47 per cent. Fees paid to the organisers of training accounted for approximately one third of the total training costs.

At the whole frame population level, training costs accounted for 2.4 per cent of the labour costs of enterprises. There was quite considerable fluctuation between branches in this, too. The cost of training per employee and the share of training costs of total labour costs were both distinctly higher in large enterprises than in small ones.

By European comparison, enterprises in Finland train their employees reasonably actively. The proportion of enterprises having organised training was in Finland the fourth highest in Europe. Measured by the share of employees having participated in training and by the number of training hours per employee, Finland is among the three leader countries, with only Sweden and Denmark ahead of her. In respect of employers' investment in employee training, Finland is of good European average.

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Päivitetty 31.5.2005