Guidelines On The Vocational Training Of Adults In The Eu

From the theoretical aspects related to the vocational training of adults presented in the introductory part through the analysis of the specialty literature, the paper aims to answer two questions: How is vocational training activity regulated in the European Union documents? What is the current situation at EU level of adult participation in education and training? The answer to the first question contains aspects related to the way in which the vocational training activity is regulated under the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, aspects regarding vocational training in the Europe 2020 Strategy as well as the analysis of some key actions brought forward by the "Agenda for new skills and jobs" initiative. To answer the second question, we have analysed the situation of adult participation in various forms of education and training at EU level in the light of the results of the Adult Education Survey (AES), which is part of EU statistics on lifelong learning. Thus, analyzing existing data, there are considerable differences in the level and trend of participation between Member States. The adult participation rate in the AES 2011 survey varies between 8% (Romania) and 71.8% (Sweden). These data are very little different from those of the AES 2007 survey in which Romania recorded 7.4% and Sweden 73.4%.The overall picture shows a high rate of participation in the Nordic countries and some Western European countries (Denmark, Germany, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Sweden and Norway) but also in some eastern and southeast countries Europe (Estonia, Cyprus, Hungary, Portugal and Slovakia). For seven countries (Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Spain, Austria, Poland, Portugal) there is an increase of over 10% in the participation rate as a result of comparing AES 2007 and AES 2011 data. The largest increase is recorded in Portugal, where the obligation for employers to provide vocational training for their own employees was introduced in internal regulations and implemented. Unfortunately, Romania is ranked last, both according to AES-2007 and the AES-2011 results.