 |
ESTONIA |
|
ESTONIA |
IN-SERVICE TRAINING AND STAFF DEVELOPMENT
The organisation of in-service training in Estonian public organisations is decentralised to a large degree. There is no institutionalised pre-service training, although civil servants usually pass several training courses during their probation period of up to six months. All training is provided in the form of in-service training. The Law of Adult Education dictates that three percent of an organisation’s payroll has to be spent on in-service training. According to data obtained from the state chancellery, there were more than two hundred training institutions offering individual courses to civil servants in 1998. The biggest centre is the Estonian Institute of Public Administration, which focuses on the in-service training of state and local officials on all levels.
Although universities have the greatest expertise in PA, their share of in-service training is not that great. This is because universities have been busy developing their undergraduate and graduate programmes and educating future faculty members. The role of universities as providers of in-service training has, however, gradually increased. A problem for all universities is that their full-time faculty members also teach in private training institutions to earn extra income. This is why universities have decided to provide their own in-service training programmes through open university schemes.
As the greatest number of civil servants work in Tallinn, Tallinn Technical University and the Tallinn University of Educational Sciences offer most in-service training courses. The Tallinn University of Educational Sciences offers a wide array of in-service courses and provides EU training to practising civil servants in the framework of their EU module. Faculty members of Tallinn Technical University teach individual courses under the umbrella of the Estonian Institute of Public Administration, covering the fields of local government, management psychology and regional policy. In addition, both Tallinn universities have organised short courses on particular themes, for specific target groups of civil servants. The University of Tartu has not been as active in providing courses for practising civil servants, although faculty members have taught individual courses on public ethics, small state administration, information politics, public policy analysis, organisational theory, the provision of public services, etc. Most of the courses involve a comparative dimension, as comparative analysis is part of the broader teaching culture in Estonia.
[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Part 1 ] [ Part 2 ] [ Part 3 ] [ Part 4 ] [ Part 5 ] [ Part 6 ] [ Part 7 ] [ Part 8 ] [ Part 9 ] [ Annexes ]
