Talent policy in Estonia - from pieces to bigger picture?

Talent policy in Estonia - from pieces to bigger picture?

Laura Kirss

laura.kirss@praxis.ee

Talent policy situation in international perspective

Internationalization of higher education needs support from other sectors

• New Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) by INSEAD (2013)
• GTCI: an assessment of what countries do to produce and acquire talents (input) and the kind of skills that are available to them (output)
• Estonia ranks 23 of 103
• Overall context (enablers) rated high (rank 25), except labour market flexibility
• Talent attraction low (rank 52), low scores in FDI inflow, qualified labour inflow, tolerance of minorities and immigrants
• Local talent growth rated comparatively high (rank 35), low scores in international student inflow and university rankings
• Local talent retention context rated very high (rank 8)
• Labour and vocational skill level rated high (rank 24)
• Global knowledge, i.e outcome rated very high (rank 9)

• Strategy of internationalization of higher education successful in attracting foreign students
• share of foreign students has increased considerably
• however, other state policies not always supportive of attraction activities
• Attraction needs to be backed up by development and retention activities
• internship and employment opportunities need support from businesses
• Need for more active labour market service provision for foreign HE graduates

Diaspora policy - from niche policy to wider impact?

Talent - who or what?

• Currently, diaspora policy focused on language and culture
• Return of foreign living Estonians declared in strategy but not supported with actual measures (except minor relocation support)
• No real connection to addressing shortage of qualified labour
• Unused knowledge potential in the diaspora
• Need to better map diaspora, its characteristics and interests (voluntary basis)
• Followed up by better communication and clear messages about Estonia's interest in them, promotion of opportunities
• Development of short-term diaspora cooperation initiatives

• Disambiguation and public polemic over the term "talent" brought by the "Talents come home!" project
• Traditionally, in Estonian "talent" refers to exceptional capability or giftedness; used also in the context of developing learning environment for gifted students
• Here "talent policy" referring to policy measures aiming to resolve labour shortage problems relating to highly qualified employees
• focus on foreign talents

The Way out

Study on talent policy

Approach to talent policy in Estonia

Reactive policy regarding foreign labour insufficient to bring major change

• Talent policy in Estonia analyzed as one case study
• Part of larger One Baltic Sea Region project targeting the visibility and attractiveness of the region
• Case study elements:
• Desk research on policy and other documents
• Interviews (25) to map current policy situation, identify challenges and recommend future action
• Preliminary results

Talent policy - moving to a bigger picture?

Talent policy problem?

• Current measures (Aliens Act, R&D employee grant, investment promotion) are not sufficient to significantly increase supply of foreign labour
• restrictive migration policy (incl. 6 month stay requirement)
• Local life and work environment inconducive for talent retention
• Missing: active approach to attract foreign labour (Work in EE concept, attractive value and migration packages, strategically approaching potential markets)
• Need to concentrate labour market information and personal support services for foreigners into one service provider (e.g Work in Denmark), development of support services

• Step-by-step approach by government to address deficiency of high qualified labour supply
• relieving regulatory climate (revision of Aliens Act)
• improving provision of public services (international school, R&D emplyee support grant, plans to develop welcome program for foreigners)
• improving labour forecasting system
• Talent policy recognized as an important policy goal, however no real strategic approach
• no clear agreement on specific goals and distribution of responsibilities >> incoherence of objectives, fragmentation, overlap
• lack of policy ownership and coordination
• questionable policy impact
• Low political importance compared to other issues (talent policy does not win votes!)

PROJECTED CHANGE IN OCCUPATIONAL STRUCTURE BY COUNTRY, 2010-20 (%)

• Policy problem too urgent to afford incremental approach >> clear strategic leadership needed to assert major impact
• who becomes talent policy "guardian"?
• some kind of fixed vision need to secure policy coherence and continuity
• Labour forecasting system being updated, needs to be followed up by strategy
• Making Estonian's advantages and opportunities work for its benefit (no time to wait for golden times)
• Facilitation of employer openness (knowledge sharing and support)
• Work in Estonia concept and service development

• Imminence of the problem clearly evident: local labour market unable to meet the need for qualified labour >> foreign supply of labour needed
• population shrinkage and aging (old age dependency rations doubling)
• local labour marker slow to react
• employer organizations voicing serious concerns over availability of high skilled professionals
• decrease of unemployment
• However, is the problem clear enough to act upon? Which talents are actually need and where?
• Unclear, as the labour forecasting system does not provide sufficient input and information, no linkage to population development goals (cf Singapore)
• Mixed signals from employers (related to structure of businesses) to what extent are foreign labour actually needed and potentially used

March 7, 2014