Adult Education Survey

National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria

Education and Culture Statistics Department

Elena Tsankova

State expert

2, P. Volov Str.; 1038 Sofia, Bulgaria

[email protected]

+359 2 9857 511

The Adult Education Survey (AES) covers adults’ participation in education and training (formal - FED, non-formal - NFE and informal learning - INF). The reference period for the participation in education and training is the twelve months prior to the interview. The survey was conducted in all EU member states according to a common methodology which ensures international comparability of the data.

Information available from the AES is grouped around the following topics:

• Participation in formal education, non-formal education and training and informal learning
• Volume of instruction hours
• Characteristics of the learning activities
• Reasons for participating
• Obstacles to participation
• Access to information on learning possibilities and guidance
• Employer financing and costs of learning
• Self-reported language skills

The AES focuses on people aged:

• AES 2007 – 25-64
• AES 2011 – 18-64
• AES 2016 и 2022 – 18-69

For further information see the 2022 AES legislation (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/education-and-training/legislation) and the 2022 AES implementation manual (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/education-and-training/methodology).

Additional module to the Adult Education Survey:

Cultural participation

Participation in cultural events refers to going to the cinema, live performances, visiting cultural sites, wherever these events take place and whether these activities are performed by professionals or amateurs. Individuals are also observed by the number of books and newspapers read.

Data from the module are published on the NSI’s website, Culture section.

• Classification of Learning Activities (CLA, 2016 edition);
• International Standard Classification of Education 1997 (ISCED 1997) - AES 2007 and AES 2011;
• International Standard Classification of Education 2011 (ISCED 2011) - AES 2016 and AES 2022;
• Classification of Occupations 2008 (ISCO 08);
• Classification of economic activities Rev. 2 (NACE Rev. 2).

The survey is conducted on the whole territory of Bulgaria, with data collected for a period of twelve months prior to the interview.

Definitions as well as the list of variables covered are available in the 2022 AES implementation manual (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/education-and-training/methodology).

Additional module to the Adult Education Survey:

• Participation in cultural events refers to going to the cinema, live performances, visiting cultural sites, wherever these events take place and whether these activities are performed by professionals or amateurs. Individuals are also observed by the number of books and newspapers read.
• Live-performances could refer to plays, concerts, operas, ballet, dance and show performances. Visits of live sports events are excluded.
• Cultural sites could refer to museums, art galleries, ethnographic complexes, historic or archaeological sites of all kind, monuments, nature reserves and others.
• Reading of books and newspapers: From the number of books read are excluded textbooks, leaflets or magazines. Newspapers also include online editions of newspapers.

Individuals, learning activities.

Individuals living in private households:

AES 2007 – aged 25-64

AES 2011 – aged 18-64

AES 2016 and AES 2022 – aged 18-69

The whole territory of the country.

AES 2007 - fieldwork period: 01.11.2007 - 30.12.2007

AES 2011 - fieldwork period: 16.11.2011 - 15.01.2012

AES 2016 - fieldwork period: 15.11.2016 - 20.01.2017

AES 2022 - fieldwork period: 12.12.2022 - 17.03.2023

Not applicable.

BG: Изследване на образованието и обучението на възрастни

EN: Adult Education Survey (AES).

Participation in the survey was voluntary.

Every 6 years.

AES was a stand-alone survey. Survey type was Face-to-face.

Proxy answers are not allowed at all.

AES 2007, 2011, 2016 - Paper And Pencil Interview (PAPI).

AES 2022 - Computer Assisted Interview (CAPI). Simple random sampling of two NFE activities was performed by the electronic application during the interview.

Validation was performed by the National Statistical Institute. Eurostat performed additional tests for quality assurance.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

A set of quality criteria have been set up according to the regulations.

The quality report presents basic information on the quality at national level.

Main users: European Commission (DGs, Secretariat General), Council; Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, National Agency for Vocational Education and Training; OECD, UN, CEDEFOP.

Not available.

Not available.

Not applicable.

The overall accuracy is considered as good.

Sampling errors for 2022 AES key statistics are presented in the quality report.

Response rate:

AES 2007 - 81.5%

AES 2011 - 87.9%

AES 2016 - 77.2%

AES 2022 - 73.3%

The sampling frame is based on the 2011 Population Census System.

Shortcomings:

• Although the population frame was updated with the demographic events (births and deaths), the migration processes could not be tracked and recorded;
• Time lag between frame update and the moment of the interview.

AES 2007: 13.1% households.

AES 2011: 6.3% households.

AES 2016: 11.0% households.

AES 2022: 26.9% households.

AES 2022

Not applicable.

• Stand-alone survey;
• Face-to-face interviews;
• Proxy answers are not allowed;
• In 2007 – a full pilot survey was conducted. In 2011 and 2016 - only part of the questionnaire was tested before the survey. In 2022 - a full pilot test of the questionnaire and the electronic application was conducted.

Total unit non-response:

• AES 2007: 642 households;
• AES 2011: 436 households;
• AES 2016: 987 households;
• AES 2022: 1103 households.

Item non-response rate more than 10%:

AES 2007: None.

AES 2011: FEDPAYVAL (10.98%) and NFEPAIDVAL1 (15.26%)

AES 2016: NFEPAIDVAL2 (12.87%) and NFEPAUDVAL1 (12.00%)

AES 2022: NFEPAIDVAL1 (22.67%) and NFEPAIDVAL2 (12.50%)

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The reference period for 2022 AES is the 12 months prior to the interview, with exception for the background variables and language module (the moment of interview).

Dissemination of the national results at the NSI’s website:

AES 2011 - 07.07.2010

AES 2016 - 15.09.2017

AES 2022 - 14.09.2023

Not applicable (only final data).

Project phases - dates

Not applicable.

Full comparability with all EU member states.

Not applicable.

Partial comparability between the different waves of the survey due to differences in the overall methodology. 2011 AES collected INF differently and is therefore not comparable with the other waves.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

AES results for a given data collection round are based on the same microdata and results are calculated using the same estimation methods, therefore the data are internally coherent.

Press releases were published at the NSI’s website:

AES 2016: www.nsi.bg/en/node/15477/

AES 2022: www.nsi.bg/en/node/20763/

AES 2007: https://nsi.bg/en/node/3385/

Information System INFOSTAT of the National Statistical Institute:

https://infostat.nsi.bg/infostat/pages/module.jsf?x_2=168

Not applicable.

In accordance with the internal (for the NSI) Rules for Provision of Anonymised Individual Data for Scientific and Research Purposes (https://www.nsi.bg/en/node/12152/).

Not available.

Not applicable.

Metadata and methodological notes were published on the NSI’s website: https://www.nsi.bg/en/node/4936/ and the 2022 AES implementation manual (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/education-and-training/methodology).

Not applicable.

The national quality report was published at the NSI’s website: https://www.nsi.bg/en/node/15103/

Staff involved in conducting the survey (AES 2022):

5 experts from the NSI's Education and Culture Statistics Department - responsible for survey organization, implementation of methodology, preparation of the national questionnaire and interviewers manual, sampling, training of regional coordinators, data processing, preparation of EU dataset and quality report, data dissemination;

3 experts from the NSI's Information Systems and Application Software Department - responsible for preparation of the interviewing application;

28 regional coordinators from the Regional Statistical Offices - responsible for organization of the fieldwork, training of the interviewers and supervision of the fieldwork.

According to the Law on Statistics (Articles 25 and 26).

According to the Law on Statistics (Articles 25 and 26).