TALLINN, 12 September 2002 - The State Audit Office used six vocational educational institutions as an example to audit the organization of practical training at vocational educational institutions and formed an opinion that regardless of its efforts made by the Ministry of Education to reorganize vocational education the requirements for practical training have not been devised. Therefore, the level of practical training differs very much from school to school and there are no guarantees that the vocational education meets the requirements of entrepreneurs.

As to date the Ministry of Education does not gather feedback neither about the implementation of the practice nor the later employment of the graduates, the decisions related to the organization of vocational education, taken by thereof, won’t necessarily meet the labor market requirements. The Ministry has shown no initiative to elaborate standards for the provision of vocational education, therefore, the schools have taken very different ways to approach the issues of practice: the substance of practice in similar specialties differs very much, the practice facilities used by educational institutions are also very different.

Audit Manager Mr. Kristjan Paas: "The field training base of one of the audited vocational schools, used for practical teaching of car repairs, only had one fork lift and a couple of sets of spanners while the facilities of another school’s repair shop was envied by the other enterprises in this area. There was a school teaching information technology without having Internet connection. Of course, it would be unthinkable to bring the practice facilities of all the schools into conformity with contemporary requirements and do it fast. This wouldn’t also make much sense. It would give much better results if the students of other schools could use the well-established practice of one school. At the moment such practice is not applied."

The State Audit Office also investigated practical training at enterprises. Approximately 30% of entrepreneurs admitting practitioners did not know what the student had already learned and what was he/she expected to master during the practical training. The survey demonstrated that approximately 80% of the students had to find themselves a place for practical training by themselves. From one hand this put them into an unfair position while also increased the opportunities for fictitious passing of practical training. The substance of practice at enterprises fluctuated as this was the case with school practice. There was also a school that one could graduate without passing a practical training. These students missed the experience of working within a collective and opportunity to demonstrate their skills to potential employers.

The State Audit Office recommends the Ministry of Education to develop explicit requirements for the organization of both the school and enterprise practical training and perform supervision over the compliance with the respective requirements. It is highly important to demand the availability of necessary number of places for in-plant working experience before any new students are admitted to avoid admittance of students to specialties which doesn’t interest the entrepreneurs. Also, the Ministry should start to gather data on the results of practical training and the future career of the graduates of vocational schools as soon as possible in cooperation with vocational schools.


Sven Soiver
Press Representative of State Audit Office
Telephone: (372) 640 0787
GSM: (372) 53 414464
E-mail: [email protected]

• Posted: 9/12/2002 12:00 AM
• Last Update: 10/15/2015 10:01 AM
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