Business Community Unhappy with Cuts for Vocational Education
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry has announced it opposes the government's plan for implementing the vocational education development plan because the Cabinet is not allocating enough funding for the programs.
Minister of Education and Research Jaak Aaviksoo had asked the Chamber for an endorsement for the implementation plan for 2012-2013.
"If the submitted implementation plan is followed, the achievement of the goals of the vocational education system development plan will be in jeopardy, as will the sustainability of vocational education as a whole," said the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in its response.
The amounts of funding for each objective were only 57-85 percent of the previous understanding, it said.
The Chamber also said that the vocational education development plan for 2009-2011 only received 83 percent of the planned funding due to budget constraints.
Vocational education is the only type of education where the baseline cost of one student place is now less than it was in 2009, the Chamber said, running counter to the goal agreed with the state and partners that the cost would be increased to a level 50 percent greater than in general education. But per student, vocational education only receives 88 percent of what general education does.
"Compared to other types of education, it is no longer possible to achieve a noteworthy rise in efficiency by cutting back on internal resources," the Chamber said and warned that the only solution was for the state to decrease the number of students.
"Yet these are fields in which companies already cannot find workers on the job market," said the Chamber in its statement. "Lack of skilled workforce is considered by business sector to be our greatest obstacle to export."
Kristopher Rikken