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Employment and Social Developments in Europe (ESDE) 2024

Chapter 1 - Main economic, labour market an social developments
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Main employment and social developments
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3. Labour market developments

3.5. Adult learning

Participation of adults in formal or non-formal learning (28) increased only slightly in recent years. According to the Adult Education Survey (AES), (29) in 2022, 46.6% of people aged 25-64 in the EU had attended education or training activities, including guided-on-the-job (GOTJ) training, (30) during the previous 12 months, an increase of 2.9 pp compared to 2016 (43.7%) and 6.4 pp compared to 2011 (40.2%). 6.3% of adults had participated in formal learning and 44.0% in non-formal learning. (31) Formal learning was mainly in the fields of health and welfare (18.3%), business, administration, and law (18.3%), engineering, manufacturing and construction (11.8%), and arts and humanities (11.7%). Some of these areas cover sectors with labour shortages. Participation in learning reached its highest levels among people with tertiary education (65.7% of adults aged 25-64) and its lowest levels among respondents with lower secondary education or less (25.1%). For 38.1% of respondents, the non-formal learning activities were job-related. The level of job-related non-formal learning was higher for employed people (47.2%), than for unemployed people (17.2%) or people outside the labour force (9.7%). (32) In addition, 64.2% of the population aged 25-64 declared that they had improved their knowledge, skills, or competences in informal ways, such as through exchanges with a family member, friend, or colleague (31.1%), alone (on electronic devices (53.2%), using printed material (37.8%)), visiting learning centres (8.4%), or attending guided tours (15.4%).

Chart 1.12
Schedule, family reasons and costs are the most common barriers to participation in education or training

Main reason for not participating (or not participating more) for willing respondents, 2022, EU

Schedule, family reasons and costs are the most common barriers to participation in education or training

Note: ‘Course booked out’ and ‘Too few registrations’ were not proposed in 2011 and 2016. Percentages calculated based on respondents who answered the question (non-response rate was 11.3% in 2011, 5.7% in 2016, 9.8% in 2022).

Source: Eurostat [TRNG_AES_179], Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL) calculations.

Most people did not see the need to undertake training, while those who did cited schedules, family reasons and costs as their main reasons for not participating in education or training. In 2022, 42.4% of respondents aged 25-64 did not want to participate in education or training because they did not see the need (75.9%). Of those who wanted to participate and could not (10.2%) or those who participated but wanted to participate more (15.7%), 25.3% listed training schedules as the main barrier to their participation, while 16.0% cited family reasons, and 15.2% highlighted costs (Chart 1.12). (33)

Progress towards the EU target of at least 60% of adults participating in learning every year by 2030 is limited. The level of participation of people aged 25-64 in formal or non-formal learning (excluding guided-on-the-job training for the monitoring of the target) was at 34.4% in 2011, 37.4% in 2016 and 39.5% in 2022. (34) In a context where labour and skills shortages constitute a challenge for EU competitiveness, investment in skills continues to be of the utmost importance, especially towards a fair green and digital transition. The Commission promotes investment in skills, notably through the new European Skills Agenda, and the action plan for the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights.

Notes

  • 28.Learning activities are categorised as follows (see Adult Education Survey methodology here):
    • Formal: formal education programmes are recognised as such by public authorities. They primarily consist of initial education.
    • Non-formal: a form of education that is institutionalised, intentional and planned by an education provider and comes as an addition, alternative and/or complement to formal education within the lifelong learning of individuals. The AES differentiates between four types of typical non-formal learning activities: courses, workshops, or seminars, guided on-the-job training (planned periods of education, instruction or training directly at the workplace, organised by the employer with the aid of an instructor), and private lessons.
    • Informal: an intentional or deliberate form of learning that is not institutionalised. It can occur in the family, workplace, local community and daily life, on a self-directed, family-directed or socially-directed basis.
  • 29.AES statistics explained here ; Adult learning database here.
  • 30.The definition that includes guided-on-the-job training differs to that used to monitor the headline target of at least 60% of adults participating in education or training each year by 2030. See footnote (34).
  • 31.Categories not mutually exclusive, i.e. respondents could answer yes to both.
  • 32.Taking into consideration all objectives, not just those related to jobs, 53.9% of employed people, 29.2% of unemployed people and 24.4% of people outside the labour force participated in formal or non-formal education and training.
  • 33.Other personal reasons (9.3%), lack of support from employer or public services (8.4%), no suitable offer of education or training (7.8%), health or age reasons (6.7%), other reason (4.4%), course booked out (2.8%), distance (2.7%), and too few registrations (1.7%).
  • 34.Definition of the indicator monitoring the target differs from published data on the Eurobase and excludes guided-on-the-job (GOTJ) learning activities. The specially calculated data excluding GOTJ training for EU and all Member States, including disaggregation by sex, age groups and educational attainment, are available from Eurostat here.