Education

Key objectives of the Employers’ Manifesto education chapter

1. EDUCATION AND LABOUR MARKET MUST COME TOGETHER (including valuing vocational education).

3. PROMOTING EDUCATION IS OUR MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE FOR SUSTAINABILITY (including teachers’ pay).
4. EDUCATION SYSTEMS MUST BE OPEN, FLEXIBLE AND ADAPTABLE.

Reform Party

1. “It is the task of the state to lead the education reform and, in cooperation with the parties involved, to create a framework that would enable the development of an education system that meets society’s expectations and needs.” Greater attention to quality continuing training and retraining. I.e. “We support the wider use of work-based learning, including in higher education.”
2. An average teacher’s salary of at least €2,000 in four years. Deepening cooperation between universities and agreeing on areas of responsibility to ensure the quality and diversity of teaching, to prepare a sufficient number of specialists in the fields of specialisation that are important for Estonia, and to ensure competitive salaries for lecturers.
3. Learning to learn (resulting in self-directed learners), collaboration, digital learning, curriculum modernisation, lifelong learning, values education. Compulsory pre-primary school to prepare for school. Estonian language learning for students in English language programmes.

Social Democratic Party

2. We value vocational education. Trainee’s social contribution 13%. career and entrepreneurship training, development of applied higher education. Vocational education and training institutions are becoming internationally competitive regional development engines, including foreign language curricula in vocational education. We support the integration of vocational education and upper secondary education.
3. We value vocational education. Vocational education must not be a dead end. We encourage people to go on to higher education from vocational education. Promote the value of vocational qualifications among employers. Schools to work with local businesses. Teacher minimum wage 2000 Increasing teacher autonomy, etc.
4. Lifelong learning mentioned, but all in all, I would have expected a stronger emphasis on modernisation and inclusiveness in education from the Socialist Party.

Estonia 200

1. Through education consortia, we will integrate vocational education and entrepreneurship in a work-based learning approach. Plans for a more fundamental reform of the education system.
2. They acknowledge that “a smart and educated workforce is the basis of national competitiveness in the economy of the future”. The programme includes raising the salaries of teachers and researchers to competitive levels within 5 years. In their vision, “teacher education will be a top profession in universities and popular with people of all ages”. There is talk of reducing the teaching workload. Raising teachers “and lecturers” salaries to 1.5 % of the Estonian average (salary) within 4 years.
3. They talk about the need for continuous learning, because the expected “lifespan” of the skills needed is short. Individualised learning and lifelong learning. Attracting private capital and third sector resources to higher education and training. A long-term plan for investment in education and research. Developing the education technology sector. A personal account for each Estonian (probably a work, health and education account), part of which would be an education account, which would remember what the person has already learned and recommend the most useful and interesting self-development opportunities for the person. It is up to the individual to decide what information is in the account and how to use it.

Freedom Party

1. They consider it necessary to organise education and research according to labour market needs.
2. One year of paid leave for every 10 years of full-time work for teachers’ professional development, and together with the teachers’ representative organisation, we will develop a career model for the teaching profession. Financing faster than average increases in teachers’ salaries from the national budget.
3. Adaptable retraining mentioned

Fatherland

1. National training needs in higher education. Employers will be involved in cooperation with the vocational and higher education network. Apprenticeships and other forms of work placements will be extended and part of the costs of on-the-job training will be covered for enterprises. We will also increase further training and retraining opportunities for workers and jobseekers; Ensure that graduates of vocational education and training institutions have the same opportunities as graduates of upper secondary schools to continue their studies in higher education and create the necessary systems to this end.
2. Popularising the teaching profession: scholarship for those taking the teaching profession, induction programme for starting teachers, teachers’ salary at least 120% of the Estonian average; I-Viru County incentive package. Ensuring good teachers across Estonia – Increasing the capacity of local authorities to pay teachers good salaries;
3. Public funding for R&D to 1% of GDP

EKRE

1. Shaping “vocational and university education policies to meet the demand of the Estonian labour market”.
2. Retrieved from
3. We will convert schools to Estonian and make Estonian universities Estonian again.

Greens

1. The Greens’ programme seems to work against the Manifesto’s aim: “The primary aim of education is the development of the individual and society, and only then the preparation of the workforce”.
2. “The teaching profession must be prestigious and desirable.”
3. Make curricula more relevant, flexible and values-based. Mention lifelong learning but do not deliver. Vocational subjects as electives in upper secondary schools using the technical base of vocational schools. In higher education, curricula in Estonian for basic subjects needed by society.

Centre Party

1. “Encouraging technical education in schools”, ensuring at least secondary or vocational education, education for labour market needs, digital skills, critical thinking, .
2. Teachers’ salaries in general education schools would be raised to €2000. Ensure competitive salaries for university lecturers. Qualifications from vocational or higher education.
3. Developing digital skills internally, supporting lifelong learning. Cooperation between educational institutions, employers and local authorities. Supporting leisure education.

Summary

The main weakness of Estonia’s economic development is a lack of skilled human capital. There are not enough people, the working-age population is shrinking at an alarming rate and people are not sufficiently qualified to take the leap forward to reduce labour intensity. To innovate, or to hand over work to robots, we need highly skilled people, and more likely to be technologically educated. But we should not delude ourselves into thinking that even the science knowledge we have learned will be immutable or sufficient to ensure success in the future. An open mind, curiosity and learning skills are therefore an essential set of qualities for success today.

Of the employers’ manifestos, the best represented in the programmes (Reform, Eesti 200, Sotsii, Isamaa and EKRE) is the idea of a single Estonian school, which supports the integration of the population and the labour force, labour supply and productivity.

In general, the political parties also support valuing education and teachers. The Reform Party and the Centre Party want to raise teachers “salaries to €2,000 in four years, while the Socialists think this would be a suitable minimum. Other parties” programmes are more general about valuing teachers or raising their pay, and Isamaa, EKRE and Vabaerakunta do not mention it at all.

Reform, Sotsii, Eesti 200, Vabaerakond and EKRE want to shape education provision according to the specific needs of economic development or the labour market. The Greens consider the development of personality and society more necessary than the preparation of the labour market. The thematic focus of the programmes is very general and lacks a concrete action plan or is not sufficiently linked to the objective. Valuing vocational education or supporting work-based learning is often mentioned, but neither the objective nor the more specific content is described. However, a smart education system for a smart economy and smart work requires a comprehensive reform, from the school network to the educational curriculum and methods.

The lack of a skilled workforce that meets the needs of the labour market and the shortage of skilled labour to take the next leap forward is seen by both Estonian economic experts and international observers as one of Estonia’s biggest competitiveness weaknesses. The education system also needs money, and if it is not able to produce high value-added workers, its funding will not be sustainable.

A more in-depth treatment of practical and up-to-date education would have been expected in the programmes of the Centre Party and the Socialists, as redistribution and social services play a major role in them. In any case, rapid increases in public expenditure or labour costs will always put people with weaker competitive abilities in a more difficult position, and the only way out of this is competitive qualifications.