Comparability
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Population and Education, Social Statistics.Asger Bromose Langgaard
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The current time series of these statistics goes back to 2005, but statistics on vocational education have been made further back than this. Vocational education reforms can be a challenge when comparing figures over time. Furthermore, it may be difficult to compare the figures internationally, as vocational training is defined differently from country to country.
Comparability - geographical
The statistics form part of the basis of data in the OECD publication Education at a Glance with international comparisons of entrance to and graduations from the education system.
The vocational education system varies a lot between different countries. When comparing across countries one should therefore take into account that vocational education can be understood differently. An education which is a vocational education in one country might not be a vocational education in another country.
Comparability over time
The current time series of these statistics goes back to 2005. When comparing over time, it is good to keep in mind that a reform was implemented in 2015.
Vocational education reform in 2015
For vocational education, the reform in 2015 caused a change in the pattern of entrants. Before the reform there was only one basic course. With the vocational education reform the basic courses were split into two: basic course 1 and basic course 2. In DISCED-15 basic course 2 is classified under the same main level as the main courses in StatBank Denmark, because you need to choose a specific education before starting on basic course 2. Therefore, now only basic course 1 is under basic courses in StatBank Denmark. In addition, basic course 1 is only for students who has left 9th or 10th grade less than a year ago, while other students begin directly on either basic course 2 or the main course. Many students are therefore now never registered under basic courses in StatBank Denmark. It is therefore necessary to remember when comparing numbers before and after the reform that eventual fluctuations might be a cause of the reform.
Archived tables in the StatBank
The earliest figures on vocational education in the StatBank are from 1991. In addition, there are two time series covering the periods from 1997 to 2006 and from 2005 to 2014 respectively. The break in the time series is due to the municipal reform of 2005 and the fact that data after 2005 is from Statistics Denmark's so-called module data which is not directly comparable with data from before 2005. However, these are not directly comparable with the active tables. Firstly, the archived tables are based on the old educational classification, which is no longer used. Second, the archived tables are based on an older version of the Student Register.
Coherence - cross domain
Since the statistic is publicized together with the statistic about other educational fields in the Student Register, it is possible to compare with statistics for other educational levels.
Coherence - internal
From 2019 most of the data is from the same source, which is the National Agency of IT and Learning's collection of data.