We expect teachers, doctors, police officers, and, of course, shop assistants and other service providers to speak Estonian. Language skills can determine whether you find a job or employee or are able to continue in your profession. Employers may find themselves in a difficult situation if some of their hard-working employees do not have the required level of Estonian language skills. Good language skills are therefore in the interests of customers, employees, and employers alike.
How can language practice be incorporated into working life? We hear various excuses as to why employees are not offered Estonian language training. For example, people claim they have no time to learn the language. However, today’s learning formats are often short, easy to integrate into everyday life, and even a few learning sessions can bring success. It should also be noted that language learning is not only the personal effort of the learner, but the shared responsibility and cooperation of the entire institution.
The Integration Foundation’s guide ‘Support your employees’ language learning!’ was compiled taking into account the experiences and needs of employers. Authors Helena Metslang (researcher in educational language policy and language learning) and Robert Szabo (Master of Education, developer and head of studies of international language programmes) describe the purpose of the guide. ‘Many hospitals, schools, and kindergartens have employees whose Estonian language skills need support, but managers and HR staff have often found that previous attempts have not yielded the desired results,’ says Metslang. Szabo adds, ‘The guide provides guidance on how to integrate language learning into working life in a way that benefits both the employee and the organisation as a whole. In the Estonian public sector, language learning is often project-based. Our goal is to show how language learning can be part of the organisation of work – not an extra burden, but a development opportunity.’
‘Support your employees’ language learning!’ consists of two parts:
1) The guide ‘Support your employees’ language learning!’ provides recommendations on how to plan language learning in your organisation, motivate employees, and evaluate results. The guide is available in A5 format as a printed publication and online.
2) Worksheets that help to implement language learning and adapt it to the workplace. The worksheets are in A5 format and can be printed out according to the needs of the organisation.
You can find the guide ‘Support your employees’ language learning!’ on the website of the Integration Foundation here. The printed version is available at the foundation’s offices in Tallinn and Narva.
The guide has been funded from state budget and with the support of the European Union’s Cohesion and Internal Security Policy Funds (ESF) for 2021–2027 within the framework of project No. 2021-2027.4.07.23-0005 under decree No. 80 of the Minister of Culture of 15 March 2023 ‘Conditions for granting support for the implementation of activities supporting integration, including adaptation, in Estonian society’.
