Training of various durations: Do we find the same social predictors as for training participation rates

Figures & data

Table 1. Participation in non-formal training among all employees 20–65 years, by educational level and country (per cent).

		The four high-performing countries				The four low-performing countries
	Total, eight countries	Denmark	Finland	Netherlands	Norway	France	Poland	Belgium	Slovakia
Lower secondary school or less	41.6	52.7	49.1	53.0	52.0	22.8	28.3	28.3	15.7
Upper secondary, vocational programmes	52.4	67.6	66.7	70.5	63.3	36.2	35.0	36.9	34.5
Upper secondary, general programmes	52.9	62.4	64.0	62.9	70.6	42.9	40.1	47.8	44.9
Higher education	75.6	82.7	84.4	84.2	77.0	59.2	68.3	73.2	63.1
Total participation	60.1	70.9	73.2	70.6	68.2	42.4	47.7	55.1	44.5
Total number of observations	27,942	4488	3304	3141	3444	3854	4148	2854	2709

Note: The table only includes employees 20–65 years with a known educational level.

Table 2. Participation in non-formal training among all employees 20–65 years, by immigrant background and group of countries (per cent).

	Total, eight countries	The four high-performing countries	The four low-performing countries
Non-immigrant	60.5	71.4	48.2
EU/Western immigrant	60.2	66.4	46.0
Non-Western immigrant	51.2	62.6	27.6
Immigrant with unknown country of birth	58.0	65.5	:
Total participation	60.1	70.7	47.6
Total number of observations	27,941	14,376	13,565

Notes:

• The immigrants in the low-performing countries refer mainly to immigrants in Belgium and France, because there are very few immigrants in Poland and Slovakia (see Table A1).

• ‘:’ means that the number base is too low.

Table 3. The distribution of training days (per cent) and the number of days in training (mean) among employees 20–65 years who had participated in non-formal training, by group of countries.

	Total, eight countries		The four high-performing countries		The four low-performing countries
	Per cent	Average number of days	Per cent	Average number of days	Per cent	Average number of days
2 days or less	27.9	1.3	25.5	1.3	31.9	1.2
3–10 days	49.7	5.7	51.8	5.8	46.1	5.5
11–20 days	11.7	15.7	11.9	15.6	11.5	15.7
More than 20 days*	10.7	70.8	10.8	71.9	10.5	68.9
Total	100.0	12.6	100.0	12.9	100.0	12.0
Number of observations	16,271		10,053		6218

* A handful persons who have answered from 1500 to 2400 h, draw up the average in the group ‘more than 20 days’. As mentioned in the data section, the total number of hours is divided by 7 h per day. Also, when dividing such high numbers of hours by 8 h per day, these persons would have been placed in this category (i.e. ‘more than 20 days’).

Table 4. The distribution of training days (per cent) among employees 20–65 years, who had participated in non-formal training by educational level and immigrant background.

	The four high-performing countries				The four low-performing countries
	2 days or less	3–10 days	11–20 days	More than 20 days	2 days or less	3–10 days	11–20 days	More than 20 days
Education level
Lower secondary school or less	35.3	44.3	7.8	12.5	41.4	41.4	10.3	6.9
Upper secondary, vocational programmes	32.1	49.2	9.9	8.8	42.7	40.3	7.8	9.1
Upper secondary, general programmes	28.5	48.1	10.5	12.9	35.3	44.1	11.0	9.6
Higher education	18.9	55.8	14.2	11.0	24.6	50.1	13.4	11.9
Immigrant backgrounds
Non-immigrant	25.7	52.6	12.0	9.7	31.9	46.2	11.5	10.5
EU/Western immigrant	24.0	46.4	11.2	18.4	32.3	45.1	13.1	9.4
Non-Western immigrant	24.0	40.7	10.8	24.5	33.2	45.5	7.0	14.3

Table 5. Estimated effects of workplace and individual characteristics on the probability of different intensities of participating in non-formal training.

	The four high-performing countries						The four low-performing countries
	3–10 days		11–20 days		More than 20 days		3–10 days		11–20 days		More than 20 days
	Coef.	SE	Coef.	SE	Coef.	SE	Coef.	SE	Coef.	SE	Coef.	SE
Constant	−1.945	0.436	−4.572	0.655	0.082	0.577	−0.975	0.541	−1.890	0.693	0.072	0.863
Denmark	0.099	0.083	0.376	0.110	0.513	0.121
Finland	−0.507	0.078	−0.474	0.109	−0.301	0.125
Netherlands	−0.424	0.075	−0.136	0.094	0.298	0.114
France							0.134	0.099	−0.329	0.133	−0.607	0.161
Belgium							−0.216	0.104	−0.346	0.138	−0.391	0.153
Slovakia							−0.193	0.114	−0.167	0.177	−0.328	0.162
Female	−0.067	0.063	−0.092	0.092	−0.063	0.096	−0.222	0.076	−0.198	0.131	0.091	0.110
Age	0.042	0.018	0.073	0.025	−0.021	0.024	0.024	0.024	0.004	0.031	−0.064	0.036
Age squared	0.000	0.000	−0.001	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
Immigrant backgrounds
EU/Western immigrant	−0.097	0.159	−0.004	0.225	0.751	0.204	−0.194	0.286	0.416	0.386	−0.576	0.456
Non-Western immigrant	0.006	0.165	0.150	0.230	0.872	0.180	−0.163	0.270	−0.168	0.493	0.350	0.411
Immigrant with unknown country of birth	−0.069	0.451	−0.068	0.676	1.150	0.542	−0.387	1.092	0.067	12.822	0.721	1.327
Immigrant with the language of the immigrant country as first language	−0.074	0.266	−0.335	0.365	−0.853	0.329	0.255	0.307	−0.345	0.494	0.849	0.430
Education level
Upper secondary, vocational	0.142	0.094	0.270	0.147	−0.138	0.121	−0.114	0.159	−0.456	0.222	0.094	0.243
Upper secondary, general	0.208	0.117	0.435	0.178	0.190	0.165	0.186	0.147	0.059	0.250	0.304	0.241
Higher education	0.379	0.117	0.613	0.155	0.409	0.141	0.424	0.158	0.471	0.247	0.665	0.271
Average skills level	0.001	0.001	−0.001	0.001	−0.003	0.001	0.000	0.001	−0.001	0.001	−0.002	0.001
Work characteristics
Weekly working hours	0.021	0.003	0.037	0.004	0.013	0.004	0.008	0.004	0.022	0.005	0.014	0.006
1–10 employees	−0.221	0.094	−0.341	0.128	−0.217	0.122	0.033	0.092	0.193	0.167	0.028	0.160
11–50 employees	−0.042	0.071	−0.065	0.098	−0.192	0.112	−0.084	0.073	−0.027	0.139	0.083	0.143
251–1000 employees	0.335	0.093	0.527	0.132	0.419	0.127	0.054	0.107	0.452	0.158	0.282	0.161
More than 1000 employees	0.091	0.112	0.285	0.137	0.066	0.162	0.306	0.123	0.771	0.189	0.490	0.214
Occupation level
Skilled occupation	0.786	0.149	1.311	0.303	0.136	0.212	0.591	0.179	0.454	0.286	0.089	0.214
Semi-skilled white-collar	0.431	0.136	0.705	0.290	−0.252	0.193	0.272	0.183	0.258	0.265	0.041	0.254
Semi-skilled blue-collar	0.273	0.143	0.449	0.301	−0.128	0.228	0.115	0.188	−0.037	0.298	−0.182	0.257
Unknown occupation	0.689	0.235	1.515	0.380	0.745	0.290	0.869	0.504	0.969	0.570	1.914	0.488
Industrial sector
Agriculture etc.	0.470	0.289	0.142	0.492	0.321	0.369	−0.618	0.332	−1.184	0.817	0.131	0.559
Manufacturing, mining, electricity supply	0.123	0.101	0.132	0.165	0.019	0.163	−0.115	0.098	−0.094	0.186	−0.073	0.160
Construction	−0.231	0.147	−0.102	0.223	−0.273	0.217	−0.146	0.175	−0.120	0.264	−0.119	0.274
Information, communication	0.049	0.144	0.135	0.192	0.057	0.210	0.354	0.212	0.221	0.278	0.692	0.308
Finance, estate	0.594	0.181	0.554	0.234	0.610	0.277	0.433	0.181	0.291	0.261	0.684	0.261
Professional, scientific	0.093	0.142	0.141	0.221	−0.063	0.245	−0.038	0.200	0.239	0.289	−0.048	0.264
Public administration and defence	0.435	0.113	0.669	0.169	0.704	0.168	0.454	0.126	0.632	0.190	0.677	0.190
Education	0.251	0.092	0.357	0.164	0.503	0.149	0.031	0.136	−0.001	0.204	0.552	0.194
Health and welfare	0.183	0.086	0.229	0.146	0.044	0.137	0.144	0.114	0.065	0.208	0.265	0.189
Arts	−0.106	0.188	−0.363	0.359	0.153	0.301	−0.146	0.330	0.326	0.366	0.832	0.427
Other	0.282	0.169	0.285	0.296	0.174	0.306	0.075	0.243	0.944	0.314	0.073	0.395
Total number of observations	10,053						6218

Notes: (1) The estimation results are based on multinomial logistic regression. Training of very short duration (2 days or less) is used as the base outcome. (2) Only employees 20–65 years with no missing values on at least one of the independent variables are included (immigrants with unknown country of birth and persons with unknown occupation are included as dummy-variables). (3) Coefficients in bold types are significant at the 5 per cent level. (4) The reference person is: male, non-immigrant, lower secondary school or less, 51–250 employees at the workplace, elementary occupation, employed within the industrial sector of ‘sale, transport and support’, and living in Norway (high-performing countries) and Poland (low-performing countries).

Table 6. Estimated probability to participate in training of various duration, by educational level and group of countries.

	The four high-performing countries				The four low-performing countries
	Lower sec. school or less	Upper sec., voc. prog.	Upper sec., general prog.	Higher education	Lower sec. school or less	Upper sec., voc. prog.	Upper sec., general prog.	Higher education
2 days or less	0.295	0.269	0.248	0.216	0.369	0.402	0.328	0.269
3–10 days	0.513	0.541	0.531	0.549	0.443	0.430	0.474	0.493
11–20 days	0.091	0.109	0.118	0.123	0.113	0.078	0.106	0.132
More than 20 days	0.102	0.081	0.104	0.112	0.075	0.090	0.091	0.107

Notes: (1) The estimates in Table 6 are based on the regression coefficients in Table 5 for the high- and low-performing countries, respectively. (2) The respondents are assigned average values on all other variables than educational level, i.e. the average values for the four high- and the four low-performing countries, respectively.

Figure 1. Estimated probability to participate in training of various duration, by educational level, occupation and group of countries.

Notes: (1) The estimates in Figure 1 are based on the regression coefficients in Table 5 for the high- and low-performing countries, respectively. (2) The respondents are assigned average values on all other variables than educational level and occupation, i.e. the average values for the four high- and the four low-performing countries, respectively (see Table A1).

Figure 2. Estimated probability to participate in training of various duration, by immigrant background. High-performing countries.

Notes: (1) The estimates in Figure 2 are based on the regression coefficients in Table 5 for the high- performing countries. (2) The respondents are assigned average values on all other variables than immigrant background, i.e. the average values for the four high-performing countries (see Table A1).

Figure 3. Estimated probability to participate in training of various duration, by country.

Table A1. Mean sample values of independent variables used in the regressions, by group of countries.

	Total, eight countries	The four high-performing countries	The four low-performing countries
Female	0.501	0.509	0.488
Age (range; 20–65 years)	40.9	41.3	40.1
Non-immigrant	0.927	0.909	0.958
EU/Western immigrant	0.037	0.044	0.024
Non-Western immigrant	0.032	0.042	0.016
Immigrant with unknown country of birth	0.003	0.005	0.002
Immigrant with the language of the immigrant country as first language	0.019	0.018	0.022
Education level
Lower secondary school or less	0.097	0.120	0.056
Upper secondary, vocational programmes	0.257	0.276	0.222
Upper secondary, general programmes	0.149	0.108	0.220
Higher education	0.498	0.496	0.502
Average skills level	291.6	293.0	289.1
Weekly working hours	37.3	36.3	39.2
Firm size
1–10 employees	0.174	0.179	0.166
11–50 employees	0.319	0.333	0.293
51–250 employees	0.273	0.266	0.286
251–1000 employees	0.135	0.124	0.154
More than 1000 employees	0.099	0.099	0.101
Occupation level
Skilled	0.569	0.559	0.586
Semi-skilled white-collar	0.234	0.250	0.206
Semi-skilled blue-collar	0.133	0.121	0.155
Elementary (reference category)	0.041	0.041	0.043
Unknown occupation	0.023	0.030	0.011
Industrial sector
Agriculture etc.	0.009	0.009	0.009
Manufacturing, mining, electricity supply	0.165	0.139	0.209
Construction	0.050	0.051	0.050
Sales, transport and support	0.214	0.221	0.202
Information, communication	0.040	0.041	0.037
Finance, estate	0.042	0.038	0.049
Professional, scientific	0.052	0.057	0.043
Public administration and defence	0.093	0.083	0.112
Education	0.116	0.106	0.132
Health and welfare	0.185	0.218	0.129
Arts	0.016	0.017	0.013
Other	0.018	0.020	0.014
Number of observations	16,271	10,053	6218

Note: The table only includes employees 20–65 years with no missing values on at least one of the independent variables, except that immigrants with unknown country of birth and persons with unknown occupation are included.

Table A2. The average number of training activities, by form of non-formal training and the number of days in training. Training activities among all employees 20–65 years who had participated in non-formal training.

	2 days or less	3–10 days	11–20 days	More than 20 days	Total
Open or distance education	0.2	0.4	0.7	0.7	0.4
On the job training	1.4	2.3	3.0	2.9	2.2
Seminars or workshops	0.4	1.2	2.1	1.7	1.2
Private lessons	0.2	0.4	0.8	0.8	0.4
Total	2.2	4.3	6.5	6.2	4.2
Average number of days	1.3	5.7	15.7	70.8	12.6
Average number of days/average number of activities	0.6	1.3	2.4	11.4	3.0

Notes: (1) The table only includes employees 20–65 years with no missing values on at least one of the independent variables, except that immigrants with unknown country of birth and persons with unknown occupation are included. (2) The row ‘average number of days’ is inserted from Table 3. (3) In the last row we have divided the averages in the row ‘average number of days’ by the average number of learning activities in the row ‘total’.