Harno starts €15 million project to develop green skills

The Education and Youth Board (Harno) created a Green Skills Program to improve Estonian education's labor market relevance and environmental sustainability. The EU Regeneration and Resilience Facility funds the initiative fully.
The Green Skills Program has a total budget of €15 million for its activities from 2023-2026. According to Harno, the grant is only for the implementation of the green skills project and cannot be transferred to other initiatives.
Anna Traksmaa, the program manager at Harno's education innovation department, said that green skills are key to the future economy.
"Green skills have long been respected in Estonia, but we are now collaborating with educational institutions and industry partners to identify the broad range of green skills that should be integrated into education and hence business. The purpose is to help businesses adopt environmentally friendly technologies and create sustainable products and services. On the one hand, there is an increasing need for awareness; on the other hand, the sustainable use of resources, which we can only achieve together, is critical," Traksmaa said.
The program's activities include the development of curricula for vocational education and training through sectoral working groups; the provision of on-the-job training and micro-skills training to support the greening of businesses; and the integration of green skills into occupational standards and skill profiles.
Nearly 80 partners are involved in the program, including 19 vocational training institutions, eight higher education institutions, and 49 professional associations and institutions with which close cooperation is maintained.
In addition to upgrading curricula, more than 3,000 company employees, vocational trainers and teachers will have the opportunity to participate in green skills training over the next two years.
This year there will be around 100 training courses, a list of which will be published on the education portal in May. Given the importance of the program's communication activities, a tender will be launched to find a communication and marketing partner.
The Education and Youth Board, which has been in the spotlight because of glitches in the Examinations Information System (EIS), is a 400-employee agency created four and a half years ago by the merger of four education agencies, with a budget of €100 million this year.
Harno, which implements Estonia's education and youth policy, was created on August 1, 2020 through the merger of four agencies. These were SA Innove, Education Information Technology SA, SA Archimedes and the Estonian Youth Work Center.
Harno employs 394 people. According to the salary guide signed by Director General Jaak Raie in October last year, the average monthly salary for a primary specialist at Harno is €1,200, for a mid-level specialist €1,655, for a general specialist €1,975, for a primary manager €2,365, for a head of unit €3,500 and for a top manager €5,500.
--
Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!
Editor: Mari Peegel, Kristina Kersa