More company courses in private sector

Four out of ten employees in the private sector – i.e. a total of one and a half million employees - went on at least one company course in 1999. Six years previously, only one quarter of staff received company training.

Relatively more men than women participate in courses: 44% compared with 35%.

Private sector companies spent a total 3 billion euro on staff training in 1999, just over 800 euro per employee.

Most courses for technical skills

Some 17% of all training hours in 1999 were spent on courses in the area of technical, construction and production skills, such as metalworking, furniture making and telecommunications. Another 16% of training hours were taken up by courses on accounting and finance. Computer skills accounted for 15% of company course hours.

Training hours company courses, 1999

There are differences between sectors of industry. In the financial institutions two-thirds of training hours were spent on accounting and financial courses. In trade most hours – 30% of the total – were taken up by sales and marketing courses.

Employees in manufacturing and construction used more than a third of course hours for courses in the area of engineering and technology. In the construction industry, moreover, courses in the area of the environment and working conditions accounted for another third of the time spent on training.

Annelies Boerdam