Education

Technological advances are leading to a widening welfare gap between people around the world, with people with the right knowledge and skills on one side and those without on the other. It is the ultimate responsibility of the Estonian state and all of us to ensure that young people have the opportunity to be on the better side. In today’s world, where disruptive changes are no longer taking place in years but in quarters and even months, the competitiveness of people without professional education and skills is becoming increasingly difficult to match in the labour market.

The Employers’ Education Group is chaired by Veljo Konnimois (Estonian Engineering Federation) and includes representatives of entrepreneurs from our membership .

We are working to alleviate the shortage of highly skilled specialists in the Estonian labour market. Employers are involved in a range of working groups, from the Advisory Council on Vocational Education and Training to the Quality Assessment of Higher Education. There are challenges in education that need to be tackled in cooperation between different actors, in general, vocational and higher education.

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General education

• Ensuring the next generation of teachers
• Introducing a changed approach to learning
• Career guidance
• Streamlining the school network to ensure the quality of education, including good teachers.

Vocational education

• Learning the skills needed for the labour market and better translation of OSKA results into orders
• Reducing the drop-out rate from the current level of 20 percent
• Ensuring the next generation of professional teachers, including an increase in teacher salaries
• Ensuring the quality of vocational education and training – development of apprenticeships; graduation with vocational examinations, employment of graduates.
• Matching vocational education and training funding to the actual teaching costs of the disciplines concerned
• Streamlining the vocational school network, including the creation of centres of excellence
• Flexible renewal of curricula
• Systematic development of continuing training, including the creation of short curricula suitable for continuing training.
• Popularising vocational education and training, in particular to attract young people into the profession.

Higher education

• Changing funding to ensure sustainability
• Pre-training of the necessary specialists – although in many disciplines admissions to higher education institutions have been adjusted following the OSKA survey and supply has moved closer to demand, there is a need to better take into account Estonia’s strategies and OSKA results, including the establishment of an engineering academy.
• Developing curricula and providing in-service training tailored to labour market needs (microcredits)
• Ensuring the succession of teaching staff

1. There is no such thing as free education, only taxpayer-funded education. It therefore makes sense for the state to commission education institutions to provide the volume and in the areas that the labour market needs.

Establish a national mandate for all levels of schooling based on national needs. In this context, take into account the target set in the Lifelong Learning Strategy of 65% of basic school leavers continuing their studies in upper secondary education and 35% in vocational education and training;
– we reiterate our proposal of four years ago: to replace free higher education with higher education financed by student loans. If the student successfully completes his studies within the prescribed period, the state cancels the student loan.

2. A lot has been done in Estonia to create work-based apprenticeships and develop the apprenticeship system. Changes do not come easily, as the motivation of the participants is not clear. However, work-based learning and apprenticeships have a very important role to play in the training of workers with the necessary skills.

Implement workplace-based learning more often in your companies. Also offer more meaningful, long-term apprenticeships. Among other things, this will help you find the best workers for the future.

Support the mentoring of apprentices necessary for the development of effective vocational education and training, including by exempting apprentices and trainees from social security contributions.

3. In the financing of education (including vocational education), the expectation of results has so far been blurred, and little really depends on results.

Increase the share of output in the vocational education and training funding model to one third. The better and more effective an institution is in training students, the more money it will receive from the state budget.

4. Estonia has established a system for the assessment of professional skills and the award of professional certificates. This will motivate people to improve their skills the more these certificates are assessed.

Recognise professional qualifications more widely and send a clear message to employees about their value.

In any case, to maintain the independent issuing of professional certificates and adequate funding of the system.

5. The Estonian education system is like several different systems. We believe it is important to increase flexibility, inter alia, there should be no educational deadlocks or rigid curricula.

Ensure that graduates of vocational education and training institutions have the same opportunities as upper secondary school leavers to continue their studies in higher education. To this end, create a system of admission to higher education for graduates of vocational schools, supported by the state and higher education institutions. This will make vocational education more attractive and increase the employability of graduates.

6. Teaching future skills starts in primary school. If we want to increase the share of science, engineering and technology-related disciplines in higher education, we need to do much more to popularise and strengthen the teaching of science and technology. This must be done by ensuring the availability of good teachers.

– Significantly increase integration between subjects;
– End the division of the maths curriculum into narrow and broad-based;
– Raise teachers “salaries to at least 1.5 times the average in Estonia within four years, and science and vocational teachers” salaries to twice the average;
–increase demand for a new approach to learning, with the learner at the centre, as outlined in the Lifelong Learning Strategy;
– if we can agree that defence spending is important for Estonia, we must also be able to reach an agreement on the importance of innovation and education that is not a matter of partisan bickering.

The Education Group’s views for the coming years

1.We support the use of OSKA analyses in the national funding of vocational education and training. The OSKA labour needs survey should be updated at least every 2 years. At least 1/3 of VET funding must be performance-based.

2.We would like to see the annual upper secondary school enrolment threshold set and the money freed up to be allocated to vocational schools. This would attract more students to vocational education and would give the best students the opportunity to pursue higher education on the basis of a vocational school.

3.The teaching of real sciences in primary and secondary schools needs to be improved and real sciences popularised. Solutions include higher salaries for teachers of science, teaching technology and ICT from grade 6, and the elimination of more narrowly focused subjects. We see the state as having a key role to play here, but as employers we are also ready to contribute with advice and support through various projects (back to school, Erasmus, pay support projects).

4.Teachers “salaries must grow faster than the Estonian average. As it is today, it should be at least EUR 2 000. In order to find the money, it is essential to reorganise the school network in Estonia, both in general education and in vocational education. The money released should be used to increase teachers” salaries. In the new period of European funding, the emphasis should be on people and efficiency.

5.In higher education, we support the reinstatement of (partial) tuition fees. State-funded higher education could be subject to a “pay-back” obligation. In higher education, we advocate internationalisation, openness and cooperation.

6.As employers, we need to promote better cooperation between businesses and schools. We need to be more active in offering apprenticeships. We must be more active in promoting apprenticeships.

7.We need to create a more effective system of cooperation with education management. The state system could be much simpler and more focused.