Education & Training

Building on many years of expertise analysing education and training issues in a labour market context for the Directorate-General for Employment & Social Affairs of the European Commission, Alphametrics has been working more closely on these issues with Cedefop - the EU agency responsible for the development of vocational training in Europe - as well as with DG Education & Culture.

E-learning in Europe
Over the past few years Alphametrics has been at the forefront in the analysis of e-learning trends in Europe. In 2001 Alphametrics - in collaboration with Cedefop's European Training Village - carried out the most extensive survey ever of the elearning market in Europe, which resulted in an even wider-ranging follow-up survey in 2002. Since then Alphametrics has contributed to major studies on the development of the European e-learning market for the European Commission.

For more information go to the e-learning page.

European Policy Report on Vocational Education & Training (VET)
During 1999, Alphametrics personnel worked closely with experts in Cedefop, based in Thessaloniki in Greece, to produce the First Report on Vocational Training Policy at European level. The report, entitled An Age of Learning to emphasise the growing place of education and training in economies and societies, was completed in January 2000.

In early 2004 the Second Policy Report on Vocational Education and Training - Learning for Employment - was published by Cedefop. Not only does it provide an update of developments in this area since the first report but also an analysis of the importance of training for the achievement of the objectives of the European Employment Strategy, including an assessment of potential skill shortages in the labour market in future years, based on projecting the qualifications of young people entering the labour market over the present decade, on the one hand, and the demand for workers with particular skills, on the other. It also contains a review of developments in the provision of vocational training across the Union in relation to the main pillars of the strategy.

The report’s broad areas of focus are: raising participation in IVT and CVT; equal opportunities and social inclusion; reducing skills gaps; and the development of lifelong learning and the improvement of systems of vocational education and training and raising the standards of tuition. In a similar fashion to the first policy report, this report contains extensive analysis of a range of quantitative data to throw light on the underlying economic changes taking place and on the responses of VET systems to these as well as of qualitative information about the latest developments in Member States, derived from the annual National Action Plans for employment and other sources. For more information and an executive summary of the report, visit the Cedefop web site here:

VET Financing - Investment in Human Resources
Alphametrics has also worked with Cedefop analysing the funding vocational education and training. After conducting a preliminary quantitative analysis in 2001, Alphametrics has more recently been involved in the assessment and validation of data provided by EU Member States, plus Norway and Iceland, with the aim of producing an accurate and consistent overview of financing and participation in training programmes across all levels. The information is being made available through Cedefop's Thematic Overviews (requires free registration) of national VET systems.