Education and Research

Education and science professions are related to teaching in kindergartens, general education, vocational and higher education institutions, research and development, management of...

The largest number of employees involved in teaching, research and development and youth work in education and science. Work requires at least a higher education, often a master's or doctorate degree. The average salary of teachers in general education schools is higher than the Estonian average, the salary of teachers working in kindergartens is lower. In the field of education, the problem is the replacement of employees reaching retirement age.

In the future, the number of jobs of kindergarten teachers will decrease slightly, as there are fewer preschool children. The number of jobs for teachers in general education schools does not change, but there is a lack of teachers in natural sciences and maths, as it is necessary to replace the retiring staff. The number of jobs of teachers of vocational educational institutions and lecturers of higher education will remain the same in the next few years as a whole, but their role as adult educators will grow as lifelong learning becomes more and more important. The number of university lecturers decreases slightly as the number of students decreases. At the same time, the need for research staff is increasing. The number of jobs for youth workers is also increasing, as young people are increasingly looking to participate in hobby activities.

In the future, there will be a shortage of speech therapists, special education teachers and school psychologists. The number of children in need of special education and speech therapy has steadily increased in recent years, as has the number of young people with mental health problems. This increases the need for support professionals. In addition, the role of support specialists is changing as they need to work more often with teachers to support them in noticing the diversity of learners and acting accordingly.

There will be more jobs in education and science as a whole in the future than graduates of professional education. There are enough graduates of the specialties of kindergarten and class teachers to fill jobs, but there are no graduates of the specialties of subject teachers, support specialists and vocational teachers and people with suitable education for research.

Information is based on OSKA's study of the labour force and skills of education and science, where employment in the field was forecast until 2025.