1. General provisions

1.1 The Rules for Organising Continuing Education Training for Employees (hereinafter referred to as “the Rules”) lay down the procedure for identifying the needs for and organising the employees’ continuing education 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 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, the 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 priorities for action and define 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 courses

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 (per an employee in an academic year). 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 free of charge (financed by the university) one language course at one level in an academic year;
3.5.2 if an employee wishes to repeat a course in the following academic years, the employee shall pay the full cost of the training course.

3.6 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/her immediate superior, bearing in mind that the training shall 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 does not 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 yield the desired results. If an employee fails to meet the participation requirements set by the university, payment of the participation fee is required.

4.4 The amount of the participation fee, depending on the type of training, 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 Participation fee shall be paid by the structural unit. If an employee participates in less than 75% of the total volume of the training, the organisers have the right to request 50% of the participation fee according to the type of training.

5. Organising training courses

5.1 The university’s central training courses are organised by the Human Resources 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 a training course is the employee indicated in the information 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 employees on the basis of an application thereof 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 When participating in the financing of formal education, decisions regarding the university’s share in financing shall be made, amongst other things, based 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. Coaching for managers

7.1 If the financial resources of the structural unit are limited, the Human Resources Office allocates part of the cost of coaching to all managers at the management level from the central training budget under the following conditions:
7.1.1 the meetings must be agreed in advance with the Human Resources Office;
7.1.2 the Human Resources Office covers up to 50 % of the invoice from the central university funds, with a maximum of EUR 750 per person once a calendar year.

8. Evaluating the effectiveness and keeping records of training activities

8.1 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.

8.2 The Human Resources Office collects and analyses data to evaluate the effectiveness of the training activities.

8.3 At the end of each training course, the participants shall fill out a feedback form on the course.

8.4 Data on an employee’s participation in training courses shall be stored in the HRM database of the Human Resources Office.

8.5 An employee’s participation in continuing education courses is recorded in the HRM database of the Human Resources Office.

9. Implementing provisions

9.1 The Rules for Organising Staff Training (approved by Rector’s directive No 55 of 12 September 2018) are repealed.

9.2 The provisions regarding the obligation to notify of non-participation in a training course and application of a participation fee specified in clause 4 will take effect from 1 September 2024.

9.3 The directive shall enter into force on 1 January 2024.

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