Adult education and continuing training

Contact info

Population and Education, Social Statistics
Susanne Mainz Sørensen
+45 20 34 51 79

Get documentation of statistics as pdf

Adult education and continuing training 2023

The purpose of the statistics is to provide a picture of the people's participation in courses and adult education i.e. formal courses which are financed, planned and controlled by a public provider.
The data collection on course activities has stated at different times for the different course types, and the first ones are registered from 1970's.

Statistical presentation

The statistics gives information on number of persons participating in courses and adult education i.e. formal external courses which are financed, planned and controlled by a public provider. If an education consists of several modules as in the case of Higher Preparatory Examination (HF) or a diploma, each module is counted. The information is collected and kept in the Course Participation Register.

If the course participant has completed a number of courses that add up to a whole education e.g. the Higher Preparatory Examination (HF), an academy exam or a diploma the information on the attained qualifications is collected and kept in the Quality Register.

Statistical processing

Data comes from eight different data collection.

The Ministry of Immigration and Integration collect and checks data for language courses for foreigners before data is send to Statistics Denmark. The Ministry of Education collect and checks data for the adult vocational programmes (in Danish AMU), general and preparatory education and Business Schools before is send to Statistics Denmark. The information from the vocational colleges, business academies, universities and artistic educational institutions is collected by Statistics Denmark After the data has been received, all data undergo an error check in Statistics Denmark.

Relevance

The users of the statistics includes individuals, civil servants, private organizations, foreign actors and the respondents of the data.

Applications: Public and private planning, Research, Education, Debate and Marketing etc.

One to two times a year members of a Danish committee on education (in Danish, "Kontaktudvalget for Uddannelse") meets. In connection with this meeting user-representatives from selected ministries, Labour market organisations and NGOs in the Education sector have the opportunity to comment on the statistics.

Accuracy and reliability

Please note that data at institutions under Ministry of Culture are not included. Moreover, under reporting sometimes occurs the first years after a new activity has been reported.

The far most important source of inaccuracy is incorrect or insufficient registrations. The course provider have the opportunity of reporting supplementary data for previous periods, mainly the year before. Therefore, the latest year is considered as being provisional. The opportunity is used only in a few cases.

Timeliness and punctuality

The statistics is published within one year after the reference year. The date of publication may vary and is therefore announced separately each year.

The statistics is published on time.

Comparability

Consistency over time is good in some areas e.g. for Higher Preparatory Examination (in Danish, HF) and Business Administration (in Danish, HD). In other areas as is the case with adult vocational programmes (in Danish, AMU), many changes in course subject and course length make comparability difficult. The activity reflects the trends on the labour market and changes in subsidies. There are no comparable statistics from other countries.

Statistics Denmark has since 2015 released data about the course Danish labour market language skills. Since July 1 2017 this course is no longer being offered and has resulted in a notable decrease in the numbers.

Accessibility and clarity

The main figures are published online in Statbank Denmark, http://www.statbank.dk.

Taylor-made statistics is available via Statistics Denmark's Costumers Centre.

Micro-data are accessible via Statistics Denmark's Researcher's Centre.