In their introduction to the report, On the way to 2020: data for vocational education and training policies. Country statistical overviews 2014 update, CEDEFOP poses the following questions:

• Did you know that adult participation in lifelong learning is almost three times the European Union (EU) average in Denmark?

• Or that 68% of enterprises in Estonia provide training (compared to 66% in the EU), and the percentage of early leavers from education and training in France is lower than the EU average?

The centre uses data from latest rounds of the continuing vocational training survey (CVTS), the adult education survey (AES), as well as recent updates from the EU labour force survey (EU LFS) and Unesco-OECD-Eurostat (UOE) joint data collection on education and Cedefop skills supply and demand forecasts. From 140 indicators initially identified, 33 are used for VET and lifelong learning across the EU 28 + the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey to monitor and compare European countries and their progress against objectives of the Europe 2020 policy.

Many comparisons are made using the data. Why the differences exist is another matter.