Two-thirds of small enterprises do not provide vocational training courses

Nearly two-thirds of all small size enterprises did not provide Continuing Vocational Training (CVT) courses, according to a National Statistics Office study.

Small size enterprises are businesses that have between 10 and 49 employees.

According to the Continuing Vocational Training Survey 2015, enterprises providing some form of CVT during that year amounted to a total of 1,187 enterprises (61.6 per cent), while the remaining 739 enterprises (38.4 per cent) did not provide any form of training to their employees.

A total of 38,998 (35.8 per cent) employees underwent at least one CVT course during the reference year.

Around 1.5 million paid working hours were spent on CVT courses (amounting to 0.8 per cent of the total paid working hours), of which the majority (56.5 per cent) were allocated to Internal CVT courses.

On average, enterprises which provided CVT courses for their employees directly spent €636 per participant. On the other hand, the average personal absence cost (i.e. the indirect cost of sending employees to training) amongst all CVT participants who was borne by the enterprises, stood at €522 per participant. This amounts to a total average cost (direct and indirect) of €1,158 per participant.

Of the 739 enterprises which did not provide CVT courses or any other form of courses, 565 enterprises (76.5 per cent) revealed that the primary reason for not doing so was that the existing qualifications, skills and competences were in line with the current needs of the enterprise.

Enterprises providing some form of Initial Vocational Training (IVT), such as apprenticeship, numbered 311 enterprises (16.1 per cent).