Analysis by the National Audit Office indicates that three-quarters of registered unemployed have returned to the labor market within a year following training, and fewer than half have found a job related to what they learned. The EUIF cannot simply assume the role of a mediator of training courses; it has to pay more attention to the quality of what is being offered, the institution said in a press release on Wednesday.

Analysis by the National Audit Office indicates that three-quarters of registered unemployed have returned to the labor market within a year following training, and fewer than half have found a job related to what they learned. The EUIF cannot simply assume the role of a mediator of training courses; it has to pay more attention to the quality of what is being offered, the institution said in a press release on Wednesday.

The National Audit Office found that the EUIF's objectives in connection with training are too general and that the effectiveness of training in terms of finding a job should be monitored more closely.

"Learning is always good, but it's also important to learn primarily what makes finding a job easier and what skills are lacking in the labor market," Auditor General Janar Holm said.

The fund only monitors whether an individual has been employed at all following training. What it lacks, however, is an overview of how many graduates of professional training have gained employment in which they can apply the skills they learned, as the EUIF does not collect information regarding the more specific field of work, nor does it compare it with participation in training courses.

If the EUIF doesn't analyze where people go to work after completing training facilitated by the fund and whether the job they have found and they skills they had learned are related, it remains unclear whether the training courses provided adequately help the unemployed in finding a new job.

Tens of thousands receive training each year

Participation in training courses offered by the Unemployment Insurance Fund has increased significantly in recent years, from 19,000 participants in 2018 to 29,000 in 2020.

The EUIF provides opportunities to learn foreign languages, improve digital skills and acquire business knowledge. Most popular among the registered unemployed, however, are professional training courses — in three years, the number of completions of professional training courses had increased by 80 percent, and the number of participants by 75 percent.

Professional training courses in this time period have cost a total of €32.7 million.

From 2018-2020, nearly 28,000 people participated in professional training courses via the EUIF. Within a year of completing professional training, nearly 21,000 of them have returned to the labor market.

Analysis by the National Audit Office indicated that, expressed in percentages, 74 percent of those to participate in professional training courses facilitated by the fund have returned to the labor market afterward; on average, 44 percent have found a job related to the skills acquired or improved in training.

According to the National Audit Office, the provision of training by the EUIF needs to be more precisely targeted and the impact of training courses evaluated.

Currently, the EUIF does not explicitly direct the training options available to the registered unemployed, allowing them to choose from a broad range of training courses offered by 500 training partners. The role of the EUIF, however, is not just to mediate self-improvement options chosen by the people themselves, but first and foremost to support via training their return to the labor market as efficiently as possible, the National Audit Office said.

A more thorough analysis of the field of training and subsequent employment would help increase the likelihood that funds are allocated to where their use is more effective. A more detailed overview of gaining employment would also provide an opportunity to better plan training courses and align what is provided more closely with the needs of the labor market.

More thorough quality control needed

The National Audit Office also found that training courses offered by the EUIF need more thorough quality control as well. The EUIF provides training via partners, however it does not evaluate the quality of the training courses provided, as it considers it sufficient if a partner has registered themselves as a trainer in the Estonian Education Information System (EHIS).

According to the Adult Education Act passed in 2015, only those organizing training for a motor vehicle driver, Estonian language proficiency exam, security guard and locomotive driver require activity licenses. In other fields of training, no quality control equivalent to applying for an activity license exists, and the training provider or client must be able to assess whether training meets requirements and is of high quality.

The National Audit Office is of the opinion that the financier of training should be able to supervise the quality of training more efficiently and establish clear requirements for a standard within the framework of the Adult Education Act.

The EUIF as a provider of training opportunities and bearer of training costs should not just see itself as a mediator; the fund is responsible for the quality and effectiveness of the services it provides as well, and training services are a part of that, the National Audit Office said, stressing that the current system does not ensure that only high-quality training is being offered.

Transport services training most popular

As the EUIF lacked its own more detailed overview of the relationship between professional training and gaining employment, the National Audit Office conducted its own analysis.

The results indicated that the registered unemployed most often find a new job as a driver, builder or salesperson, and that an average of 44 percent of those who completed professional training found a job in a field related to it.

In the transport services curriculum group, there is currently a shortage of category C drivers across Europe, and Estonia has been faced with a shortage for years of category C drivers as well as heavy truck, non-road mobile machinery and bus drivers alike. As a result, it is not difficult to find a relevant job in this field.

Over the years, professional training courses in this field have also been the most popular — with more than 12,600 participants, accounting for a third of all professional training facilitated by the fund — yet just 46 percent of those to complete training in this field gained related employment afterward.

The highest application rate related to the profession, meanwhile, was found in the management and administration as well as accounting and taxation curriculum groups at 62 percent and 58 percent, respectively. These are training courses that provide knowledge and skills that are required in many jobs, and thus these curriculum groups are related to many jobs in the "education key" of the labor demand monitoring and forecasting system OSKA, which is why the employment rate is higher.

Curriculum groups with a professional application rate of less than 30 percent include property and personal protection, hairdressing and beauty services, textile, clothing and footwear manufacturing as well as leather processing. The crafts curriculum group saw the lowest indicator at 14 percent.

While training courses for hairdressing and beauty services have been among the most popular in terms of participant numbers (more than 3,000), employment in this field is nonetheless rare, accounting for just 28 percent of those to complete professional training. Despite significant interest in participating in these courses, the labor market analysis indicated that there are few vacancies in the field, and that the market already includes enough skilled specialists.

The EUIF stopped financing training in this curriculum group in March 2021 following the emergence of quality concerns in training. For example, training would promise to provide skills the acquisition of which in fact requires much lengthier and more in-depth study and in the absence of which the subsequent provision of services may be dangerous — such as the administration of filler injections or permanent makeup.

To assess the relationship between training and employment, the National Audit Office used the education key established by OSKA in 2021. The education key is used in the OSKA model to predict how many graduates are needed for the labor market in a given group based on formal education. According to the OSKA team, the education key could also be suitable for assessing the relationship between refresher training and employment.

The relationship between training and employment has been established in the education key via the curriculum group of specific training and the occupational group. Gaining relevant employment after completing professional training can be assessed in types of employment in which jobs must be reported to the employment register.

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