kiese

Key Indicators on Education, Skills and Employment

2019

The ETF's 2019 data compilation exercise on education, skills and employment highlights key issues influencing human capital development including vocational education and training (VET) policies, and the critical role of reliable data in policy-making. The exercise was undertaken across the ETF partner countries in South Eastern Europe and Turkey, Southern and Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. 

The Key Indicators on Education, Skills and Employment 2019 (KIESE) publication is available on the ETF website.

What are the findings?

This exercise points, for example, to a wide variation in upper secondary VET programme participation across countries, the contribution of these programmes in reducing early school leaving, developing skills, and supporting the transition from school to work. Moreover, a persistent occurrence of underachievement in key competences across different regions is found. There is nonetheless a general shift towards increasing educational attainment in all countries, yet further training remains the preserve of better educated young adults often leaving lower education adults trapped in jobs with few career prospects.  Consult the report for greater detail on the analysis of the findings on the 20 different indicators.

Where are they used?

The indicators are compiled annually for all ETF partner countries and are used in various ETF documents and publications. As some of the indicators are also EU2020 targets for education and employment, they also allow the ETF partner countries to reference themselves with the European Union.

This collection of statistics form part of a broader set of ETF indicators to enable an assessment of developments in the field of human capital in the partner countries. Comprehensive analysis of VET and skills requires more detailed data and other information, to which KIESE are an important but not an exhaustive contribution.

How good is the data?

Data availability is the most significant challenge for this compilation exercise which varies greatly among and within regions, for example in South Eastern Europe and Turkey there is high availability, yet quality varies between countries, and in Central Asia it is generally poorer than in other regions.  

The KIESE findings are limited only to countries where data is available, and this affects the overall analysis. Although the coverage of labour market indicators is generally satisfactory across the regions, the availability of other indicators, particularly education and training, remains limited. The ETF is working with each of the partner countries to ensure better coverage and quality of data as an integral part of all its activities.

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