Payback clauses are a legal instrument that encourages companies to invest in training. Companies provide training, but in return bind employees to the company for a certain period of time. In fact, employees are free to move to another company; they may however be expected to reimburse the cost, or part of the cost, of the training they received.
This Cedefop report examines whether, and how, payback clauses for employer-financed training are regulated in 33 European countries. In-depth analysis is carried out for eight countries: Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden and the UK.
The analysis of legal framework covers aspects such as: the level of regulation (national law, collective/sectoral level agreements and individual/company level agreements) and the conditions laid down in law (contractual retention period, types of training and categories of employees/contracts that payback clauses may apply to, costs to be reimbursed by employees, redemption form, etc.).
The results of research show that there is relatively little information on the practical use of payback clauses: their implementation (the extent to which the payback clauses are actually included in employment contracts and training agreements) and enforceability (when reimbursement of training costs was indeed requested by employer).
On the basis of information collected, the strengths and weaknesses of the instrument are discussed. Finally, recommendations for policy, research and practice are formulated.
This publication is available in pdf form and as eBook, optimised for tablets and smartphones.

A multilingual tool kit for training professionals
How can people working in the education, training and employment fields across Europe make sure what they all mean when using the a term? This is the problem that Cedefop’s linguistic tools have been designed to address. Our latest offering is the multilingual synopsis of the European Training Thesaurus.
This publication, which is available online in pdf form free of charge, is a selection of 1207 terms and concepts which appear frequently in literature related to European vocational education and training (VET) research and policy. This tool forms the basis of the full-fledged online thesaurus Cedefop is currently preparing. Rather than having the full features of a thesaurus, the synopsis allows for a quick navigation by language, term and topic.
Each term/concept is presented in 11 languages: Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Swedish. Topics covered include skills needs and shortages, lifelong learning, vocational education and training policy, assessment and certification of learning outcomes, recognition of certificates and diplomas, and vocational guidance. Download European training thesaurus.
Background and outlook
The ETT is Cedefop’s thesaurus and constitutes a multilingual controlled vocabulary for VET in Europe. It contains more than 2 500 terms (descriptors and non-descriptors) and is used to describe and access knowledge of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop).
Its topics include skill needs and shortages, lifelong learning, VET policy, assessment of learning outcomes, qualifications and vocational guidance.
ETT was first developed in the 1980s to standardise the indexing process for Cedefop’s bibliographic VET-Bib database to make searching simpler and more efficient. Currently, ETT is used in different library applications, as well as in Cedefop’s webportal.
In 2008, the third edition of ETT was published and made available on the Internet in English and French.
Since then, a lot of effort has gone into preparing additional language versions, mainly by ReferNet members. The following additional languages have been finalised: Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Swedish. Czech and Maltese versions are currently in preparation.
As a living working tool, the ETT is constantly being updated to:
• include new concepts and terms arising from current shifts and trends in VET in Europe;
• integrate terms and concepts deriving from Cedefop’s vocabularies;
• align ETT terminology with Eurovoc.
Since 2011, Cedefop has also been a member of Eurovoc’s collaborative thesaurus working group. The group aims at developing a European metathesaurus, which will link specialised thesauri to EuroVoc.
Cedefop will be the first EU organisation to benefit from full integration and alignment with EuroVoc.
Acknowledgements
The ETT is managed by Cedefop’s library and documentation service. It is updated at regular intervals to reflect the latest developments in VET.
The European training thesaurus working group (TWG) is made up of representatives from Cedefop, ReferNet, Eurovoc and Eurydice. The TWG collects and examines proposals for new terms/concepts to be added to the thesaurus.
Cedefop coordinates work of the TWG and is responsible for technical developments and monitoring translations. Translations of accepted terms are then provided by ReferNet. We are very grateful for the contribution and expertise of the TWG. We would like especially to thank ReferNet members who translated terms for this publication:
• Denmark (Danish Agency for International Education),
• Netherlands (ECBO – Expertisecentrum Beroepsonderwijs),
• Estonia (Innove – Foundation for Lifelong Learning Development),
• Finland (Finnish National Board of Education),
• France (Centre INFFO – Centre pour le développement de l’information sur la formation permanente),
• Germany (BIBB – Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung),
• Ireland (FÀS – Training and Employment Authority),
• Italia (ISFOL – Istituto per lo sviluppo della formazione professionale dei lavoratori),
• Poland (BKKK – Task Force for Training and Human Resources),
• Portugal (DGERT – Direcção-Geral do Emprego e das Relações de Trabalho), and
• Sweden (SKOLVERKET – Swedish National Agency for Education).
We welcome comments and suggestions and look forward to receiving feedback via the dedicated comments form. Download European training thesaurus.