Concepts and classifications

In-service training

In the Labour Force Survey, in-service training refers to any employee training, paid for by the employer, which relates to an employee's occupation or profession or trade union activities, and which an employee attends at full or reduced pay, or against full or partial compensation in money or time off.

In-service training was measured with a question that inquired employees about their participation in paid training during the last 12 months. It was additionally asked how many days altogether employees had been in in-service training in the last 12 months.

For most employees, the training paid for by the employer relates to his/her main job. Employer-sponsored training for another job than the main job is included in the survey if the employee has several jobs of equal value of which it was not possible to itemise the main one. In 1999, less than one per cent of employees belonged to this group.

Training day

Employees were asked to give the number of their in-service training days in the 12-month period preceding the survey. Apart from full days, part-days were also counted as training days by estimating the number of full days they would correspond to. The duration of one training day is deemed to be six hours.

Since the statistical year 1995, the average number of training days has been expressed as a median, in addition to an arithmetic average. Although the majority of participants in in-service training receive one to five training days per year, a small proportion of employees receive considerably more in the same period. Therefore, the distribution of training days is skew. If an arithmetic average is employed to calculate the average number of training days, the exceptionally high number of training days received by relatively few employees clearly distorts the average upwards. When a median is used, all the values for a group are lined up in size order and the value that falls in the middle is deemed descriptive of the whole group. Therefore, extreme values in distribution cannot influence the median, which will be used as the average figure.

Establishment size

Employees were inquired about the number of employees in the establishment providing their main job. If the respondent's main job was not clear, establishment size referred to the workplace the employee him/herself considered the most important. An establishment refers to one kind of economic activity performed on one site and as subordinate to one enterprise.

Notes to the tables

Details will not add to the totals shown because of rounding.

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Updated 1.1.2001