Skills shortage remains high in Estonia
Although vocational training centers train skilled workers in a wide range of professions, there is still a shortage of professionals in the Estonian labor market. Most of the shortage is in technical fields and people have to be bought from abroad.
The Unemployment Insurance Fund (Töötukassa) estimates that there are signs that the number of unemployed could start to fall as we head into spring and summer. However, Estonia faces a persistent shortage of labor in certain sectors.
"For example, there is a constant shortage of nurses and teachers, but also if you look at the industrial sector, there is actually a constant shortage of skilled workers," Meelis Paavel, the head of the unemployment Insurance fund, said.
"An entrepreneur always expects someone with very good skills, and not tomorrow, but usually yesterday. /.../ In my opinion, too many professions are taught in too many places in Estonia and this sometimes does not guarantee quality and is ultimately more expensive for the state," he said.
Anneli Entson, the director of the Pärnumaa Vocational Training Centre, said that they are in constant contact with entrepreneurs and professional associations. Skilled workers are most needed in technical professions.
"Electronics people for sure, people with IT specializations /.../ are needed in the market for the future. We are now offering refresher training for wind turbine electricians," he said.
According to her, a skilled worker needs a good apprenticeship, but also qualified teachers. While finding vocational training is generally easy, finding teachers is more difficult.
Sven Mats, managing director of Matek, a company that manufactures timber frame houses in Pärnu County, said that despite the number of skilled workers trained in vocational education, there are still too few people in Estonia who want to do this kind of work.
"The general tendency, of course, is that Estonia has reached the same level of development as the rest of developed Europe, where there are not too many people who want simple factory jobs. In reality this still means that the people we find have to be trained locally. /.../ I think we will still have to bring in a lot of these specialists from outside Estonia.," Mats said.
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Editor: Kristina Kersa
