The first strand of the French training and employee trajectory surveys (dispositif d’enquêtes sur les formations et itinéraires des salaries/Defis), carried out in 2015, provides a more detailed picture of firms’ use of continuing vocational training. The data collected on new dimensions, such as the extent of statutory training provision and the use of outside expertise in developing training policies, confirm longstanding findings on the gaps between small and large firms.

The training and employee trajectory surveys (dispositif d’enquêtes sur les formations et itinéraires des salaries/Defis) link the training measures undertaken by employees with their occupational trajectories. A panel of 16,000 employees is to be surveyed over a 5-year period (from 2015 to 2019) and the firms that were employing them in December 2013 were surveyed in 2015 in order to gather detailed information on the context in which the employees received (or did not receive) training.