3 skills that Estonian enterprises consider important for employees

“In the survey, enterprises selected the skills and competences that they consider the most important for the enterprise’s development in the next few years,” explained Terje Trasberg, team lead of population and education statistics at Statistics Estonia.

Based on the survey, Estonian enterprises consider the following skills and competences to be the most important for their employees.

1. Technical, practical or job-specific skills

These are specialised skills and knowledge related to a specific occupation or job (e.g. operating machinery or using tools). Technical, practical or job-specific skills are considered important by 60% of Estonian enterprises. In the European Union (EU) as a whole, these competences are also considered the most necessary but are mentioned by significantly fewer respondents (43% of enterprises). 

1. Team working skills

Team working skills are considered important for development by 42% of enterprises in Estonia, which is similar to the EU average. “These skills are so universal and therefore considered equally important by enterprises from all economic activities. In nine EU countries, these skills are ranked first,” noted Trasberg.

1. Customer handling skills

In Estonia and in Europe as a whole, customer handling skills are the third most mentioned type of skills (cited by 31% of enterprises in Estonia and 37% of enterprises in the EU). Still, according to Trasberg, there are clear differences depending on the economic activity of the enterprise. 

“In wholesale and retail trade, transportation, and accommodation and food service activities, customer handling skills are ranked first (mentioned by 60% of enterprises). On the other hand, in construction, these skills are among the least mentioned competences (cited as important by 4% of enterprises),” explained Trasberg.

In addition to these three skills, many enterprises mentioned the importance of problem solving skills (24%) and general IT skills (19%) but also management skills (17%), which are especially relevant for larger enterprises with more levels of management. Among large enterprises (with 250 or more employees), as much as 47% cited management skills as important for the development of the enterprise.

The Continuing Vocational Training Survey is an EU-wide survey for collecting data on continuing vocational training provided by enterprises. The survey is carried out every five years and covers enterprises with at least 10 or more employed persons. The most recent survey was conducted in 2021, with the next one scheduled for 2026.

For more comparative data about European Union countries, see Eurostat’s website and datasets trng_cvt_29n2 and trng_cvt_29s in Eurostat’s database. The survey results for Estonia are also published in Statistics Estonia’s database.

When using Statistics Estonia’s data and graphs, please indicate the source.

For further information:

Heidi Kukk
Media Relations Manager
Marketing and Dissemination Department
Statistics Estonia
Tel +372 625 9181
press [at] stat.ee (press[at]stat[dot]ee)

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