The directive is issued pursuant to clause 11) of § 11 of the Statutes.
3. General provisions
1.1 The Rules for Organising Continuing Education Training for Employees (hereinafter referred to as “the Rules”) establish the procedures for identifying the needs for (hereinafter referred to as “training needs”) and organising the continuing education training of persons working at Tallinn University of Technology (hereinafter referred to as “the university”) under an employment contract (hereinafter referred to as “an employee”) and the principles of supporting formal education at the university.
1.2 The Rules do not apply to professional research and development of academic staff and the corresponding training (participation at research conferences, professional development, etc.)
1.3 Continuing education training for employees shall be organised in compliance with the Adult Education Act.
2. Training needs
2.1 Training needs shall be identified based on the summaries of the results of the employees’ annual appraisal interviews, the results of feedback from participants in the training courses, proposals of the heads of the structural units, the results of job satisfaction surveys and other surveys related to the university staff.
2.2 The Human Resources Office is responsible for analysing the training needs of the university and shall establish long-term and short-term training objectives and identify the priorities for action and define the tasks.
2.3 The head of a structural unit is responsible for analysing the training needs of the structural unit and shall submit the staff training needs to the Human Resources Office.
3. Participating in training
3.1 Employees can register for training courses via the training calendar on the intranet. The head of the employee’s structural unit is promptly informed of the registration by e-mail.
3.2 The employees are entered in the training list in the order of registration. The organiser of a training course has the right to make changes in the list of participants based on the target group of the training course.
3.3 The continuing education courses listed in the training calendar are, as a rule, free from charge for the university staff.
3.4 English language courses are provided at levels B1 and B2 and Estonian language courses at levels A1 and A2. The workload at all the levels is 50 academic hours. Language courses end with a written test.
3.5 Participation in language courses is subject to the following restrictions:
3.5.1 you can attend one level of a language course free of charge (with the cost covered by the university) only once;
3.5.2 if an employee wishes to repeat the same level of a language course, the structural unit or participant shall pay the participation fee in the amount set out in clause 4.4.1.
3.5.3 Individual development in continuing education courses (incl. participation in seminars and conferences) outside the university and their financing by the university shall be agreed in advance between the employee and his/her immediate superior, bearing in mind that the training must be related to the employee’s duties.
4. Obligation to notify of non-participation in a training course and applicable participation fee
4.1 An employee who has registered for a training course must notify of his/her non-participation in the course at least 3 working days before the scheduled date of the course. No participation fee needs to be paid in case of timely notification of non-participation in the training.
4.2 If the employee fails to notify of his/her non-participation in the training course, the structural unit must pay the participation fee.
4.3 The aim of the participation fee is to encourage active participation in training and to ensure that the resources invested produce the desired results. If an employee fails to comply with the participation requirements outlined by the university in clauses 4.1 and 4.2, the structural unit must reimburse the participation fee.
4.4 Depending on the type of training specified in clause 4, the amount of the participation fee to be reimbursed is as follows:
4.4.1 for management and language courses, the participation fee is 100 euros per registered employee;
4.4.2 for other courses, the participation fee is 75 euros per registered employee.
4.5 The participation fee for the training shall be paid by the employee’s structural unit. If an employee attends less than 75% of the total volume of the training, the organisers have the right to request 50% of the participation fee depending on the type of training.
5. Organising trainings
5.1 The university’s training courses are organised by the Human Resources Office in collaboration with the Open University, the Office of Academic Affairs, the didactics centres, and other structural units taking into account the training needs, the priority areas and available financial resources.
5.2 The university’s designated contact person for conducting training is the employee specified in the information provided on the training course.
6. Supporting formal education
6.1 In order to participate in formal education courses, study leave shall be granted by the university to an employee on the basis of the employee’s application and a notice from the education institution in compliance with the Adult Education Act.
6.2 As a rule, the university does not finance an employees’ formal education.
6.3 In exceptional cases, the head of the employee’s structural unit decides on contributing to the financing of an employee’s formal education at the higher education level on the basis of the employee’s application.
6.4 When contributing to the financing of formal education, decisions regarding the university’s share of financing will be made with regard to each applicant based on, among other factors, the following considerations:
6.4.1 relevance of the speciality or field being studied to the employee’s tasks planned or required to be carried out under his or her employment contract and to the university’s goals;
6.4.2 the employee’s period of employment at the university and labour input;
6.4.3 the employee’s development prospects.
7. Evaluating the effectiveness and keeping records of training activities
7.1 Evaluating the effectiveness of training activities means monitoring implementation of the objectives set for the training courses, which the employee who participated in a training course and his/her immediate superior can assess at an annual appraisal interview.
7.2 The Human Resources Office collects and analyses data to evaluate the effectiveness of the training activities.
7.3 At the end of each training course, the participants shall fill out a feedback form on the course.
7.4 Data on an employee’s participation in training courses shall be stored in the HRM database of the Human Resources Office.
7.5 Training courses completed outside the university are recorded in the HRM database of the Human Resources Office upon notification by the employee.
7.6 An employee’s participation in continuing education courses is recorded in the HRM database of the Human Resources Office.
8. Implementing provisions
8.1 The Rules for Organising Continuing Education Training for Employees (approved by Rector’s directive No 4 of 2 February 2024) are repealed.
8.2 The directive shall enter into force on 1 January 2025.