Short-term education and training will continue to be needs in order to service the economy’s rapidly changing labour requirements

MDI and TK-Eval carried out a study on the effectiveness of the government’s short-term education and training measures in the period 2017–2020 which were designed to improve participant’s employment prospects. The study was commissioned by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy and the Ministry of Education and Culture which funded the measures. The measures were designed to promote a better response to the economy’s emerging labour needs and to quickly address labour shortages in different industries through skills conversion courses for already highly educated labour segments.

The aim of the work was not only to determine the effectiveness of these short-term education and training measures, but also to produce development proposals for the future organisation of education aimed at improving employment provided by higher education institutions. The study concluded that there remains a clear need for such short-term education and training programmes in the future.

These measures are designed to respond to labour shortages in growth sectors and to address skills needs that are constantly changing. According to the study, the education projects have been largely successful and the training has been perceived as being both of a high quality and useful. The development proposals address issues such as the selection of students, adequate support and guidance, tailor-made teaching for students and the need for a stronger commitment from employers to the project.

Ongoing changes to the experience of working life, rapidly evolving skills needs and the growing mismatch between the demand and supply of skills pose significant challenges in terms of matching on the labour market and specifically to achieving the employment target set in the government programme. To address this, the current government programme aims to create the conditions for lifelong learning at all levels of education and emphasises the development of the provision of rapid continuing, in-service and re-education training, as well as training in cooperation with educational institutions and employers to improve labour supply.

This theme will continue to be studied by MDI, from June 2020, in relation to the JOUSTE -VN TEAS project commissioned by the Prime Minister’s Office which monitors the effectiveness of the new fast-track actions for continuous learning.

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Press release

Report on the effectiveness of short-term training to boost employment