The directive is issued based on clause 9) of § 11 of the Statutes.
1. General provisions
1.1 The Rules for Organisation of Staff Training (hereinafter referred to as “the Rules”) lay down the procedure for identification of the needs for and organisation of the employees’ continuing training (hereinafter referred to as “training needs”) at Tallinn University of Technology (hereinafter referred to as “the university”) and the principles of supporting formal education at the university.
1.2 The Rules do not apply to professional research and development of the academic staff and the corresponding training (participation at research conferences, professional development, etc.)
1.3 Staff training shall be organised in compliance with the Adult Education Act, regulation No 27 of 19.06.2015 of the Minister of Education and Research “Continuing Education Standard” (hereinafter referred to as “the Continuing Education Standard”), Estonian Lifelong Learning Strategy 2020 and other legislation.
2. Training needs
2.1 Training needs shall be identified based on the summaries of the results of the employees’ development and appraisal interviews, the results of feedback from participants in the trainings, 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 Personnel Office shall be responsible for analysing the training needs at the university and shall set out long-term and short-term training objectives and identify priorities and tasks for action.
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 Personnel Office.
3. Training plan
3.1 The Personnel Office shall prepare the university’s training plan based on the analysis of the training needs.
3.2 A training plan shall be drawn up for a year. An updated training plan for each half year shall be published on the intranet.
3.3 The continuing education programmes included in a training plan shall be prepared in compliance with the requirements for continuing education study programmes laid down in § 2 of the Continuing Education Standard.
4. Participation in training
4.1 As a rule, you can register for trainings and seminars in the training plan on the university’s intranet.
4.2 In order to register for a training, an employee shall fill out an online application form in the training plan on the intranet, of which the head of the structural unit of the registered employee shall be promptly informed by e-mail.
4.3 The employees belonging to the target group of the training shall be be entered in the training list in the order of registration. The organiser of a training has the right to make changes in the list of participants, if necessary.
4.4 The continuing education courses listed in the training plan are, as a rule, free of charge for the university staff. PhD students can participate in the continuing education courses provided by the university free of charge if there are any vacant places in the training.
4.5 English language courses are provided at levels A2, B1, B2 and C11, Russian language courses at levels A1 and A2 and English-based Estonian language courses at levels A1 and A2. The workload at all the levels is 50 academic hours (per an employee in an academic year). Language training ends with a written test.
4.6 Participation in language courses are subject to the following restrictions:
4.6.1 you can attend free of charge (financed by the university) one language course at one level in an academic year. If an employee decides to drop a course, the employee must pay the university the full cost of the training;
4.6.2 if an employee wishes to repeat a course in the following academic years, the employee shall pay the full cost of the training.
4.7 Individual development in continuing education courses outside the university and their financing by the university shall be agreed in advance between the employee and his or her immediate superior, bearing in mind that the training shall be related to the employee’s duties.
5. Organisation of trainings
5.1 Staff training is organised by the Personnel Office in cooperation with the Open University, the Office of Academic Affairs, the Estonian Centre of Engineering Pedagogy and other structural units based on the training needs, the priorities of training and the financial resources.
5.2 The university’s contact person for the training is the personnel management specialist indicated in the information on the training.
6. Supporting formal education
6.1 In order to participate in formal education courses, study leave shall be granted by the university to employees 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 employees’ formal education.
6.3 In exceptional cases, the head of the employee’s structural unit decides on participation in the financing of an employee’s formal education at the higher education level on the basis of the employee’s application.
6.4 Upon participation in financing of formal education, decisions on the university’s share in financing shall be made based, inter alia, on the following:
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 trainings, which the employee who participated in the training and his or her immediate superior can assess at a development and appraisal interview.
7.2 The Personnel Office collects and analyses data to evaluate the effectiveness of the training activities.
7.3 At the end of each training, the participants shall fill out a feedback form on the training.
7.4 Data on an employee’s participation in trainings shall be stored in the HRM database of the Personnel Office.
7.5 An employee’s participation in continuing education courses is recorded in the HRM system of the Personnel Office.
8. Implementing provisions
8.1 The Rules for Organisation of Staff Training (approved by Rector’s directive No 239 of 3 September 2014) are repealed.
8.2 The directive shall enter into force on 1 September 2018.
1 English language courses at C1 level are intended for academic staff.