| dc.description.abstract | Comparable statistics on education at regional level have been collected by Eurostat since school year 1990-1991. At a time when mobility and equal opportunities are at the top of the agenda for EU policy-makers within the overall framework of lifelong learning in the knowledge based society, it is relevant to focus on data at a more detailed level rather than just the national perspective. Data on both educational attainment (from the Community Labour Force Survey) and on participation in education (from Eurostat's questionnaire on enrolment in education by regions) are presented in this paper. Educational attainement is used as a proxy for human capital and participation in education can be interpreted as an investment in human resource development. By combining this information, it may be possible to measure the development potential of a region in terms of available human resources. The data refer to the school year 1998-99 and are based on the latest version of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) classification, NUTS 99. The role of regional characteristics is evident for certain educational issues. For instance, capital cities and other large cities well endowed with tertiary education institutions and facilities attract many students wishing to continue their studies at the end of their secondary education. In most cases, these are also the regions where the highest rates of well qualified people are found, suggesting that people tend to settle in such areas once their studies are over. |
