Estonie

VET institutions sometimes organise mobility arrangements or student exchanges in the framework of bilateral agreements or professional networks but these tend to be on a much smaller scale. Yet, the experience of bilateral co-operation with the Nordic countries (especially Finland) is a feature of the Estonian VET system. Active co-operation between (vocational) educational institutions has lasted over 10 years and has influenced their development.
 

The issues of international cooperation and mobility of students and teachers feature in the Development Plan for Estonian Vocational Education System 2009-2013. Leonardo da Vinci activities are linked to national priorities and goals. The development plan also prioritizes quality of education to which Leonardo da Vinci mobility arrangements, especially for staff, but also partnerships and projects clearly contribute through the exchange of international knowledge and best practice.

The main and biggest mobility program in VET in Estonia is Leonardo da Vinci Programme (part of EC LLL program). The mobility opportunities of Leonardo da Vinci program are highly valued by the target groups as it is the main measure providing larger scale placement opportunities in the field of vocational education in Estonia. Leonardo da Vinci program is implemented by Archimedes Foundation. Other programs, for example the European territorial cooperation programmes (INTERREG), are not specifically targeted to VET mobility, but there are some cross-border cooperation projects where VET institutions participate as partners targeting at companies have been effective. However, in Estonia, the focus is on VET institutions greater participation in mobility programs. Positively, as the number of mobility projects rise, more and more companies are involved in this process.
All the participants in Leonardo da Vinci projects will get Europass Mobility, where every detail of practice abroad is illustrated. There is no special treatment for apprenticeship students in IVET and no registry/database of companies participating in transnational mobility projects in VET.
 

Ministries are the main funding agencies. The ministries implement most of the mobility schemes themselves and partly delegate it to public national agencies. Private companies also provide funding for mobility schemes but do not implement them. NGO’s hardly fund any schemes but work as implementing agencies. There is also funding from provincial and regional sources available.
The funding comes from various sources. The largest contribution comes from public entities namely the provincial and regional institutions. This implies that mobility is organised and funded more on a regional than on a national level. Private institutions do not give any figures on budgets. Interestingly, NGO's play a minor role in funding mobility schemes.

Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Education and Science are the ones to fund the mobility programmes. National Agency responsible for implementation is called Archimedes Foundation. Nevertheless, it mostly supports academic mobility and provides support for non-academic exchange (e.g. youth field) only to a small extent outside of the EU action programmes.