24th Annual General Meeting of Society of Mining Professors 21 26 - 29 June 2013, Milos island, Greece Mining education and qualification framework in Estonia

G. Grossfeldt, I. Valgma and M. Kolats Tallinn University of Technology, Department of Mining, Estonia ABSTRACT Higher mining education is 75 years old in Es-tonia. It started in 1938 when the Department of Mining was created in Tallinn University of Technology.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the qualification certification was reor-ganized. In 2001, the building up of qualifica-tion standards for mining engineers was restart-ed to provide a process and framework for the authorization of equipment, competencies, pro-cedures and management systems to satisfy leg-islative requirements and responsibilities. The first positive outcomes were in 2010 when first standard for mining engineers was accepted by The Estonian Qualifications Authority (trade-mark - Kutsekoda). At this point Estonia has an 8-level comprehensive national qualifications framework, which consists of four sub-frameworks: for general education, for voca-tional education and training (VET), for higher education and for occupational qualifications with sub-framework specific level descriptors. Meanwhile cooperation with international pro-ject called EUExNet was used to create explo-sive engineering qualification standards. The standards were basis of current curricula called Geotechnology that is used for preparing mining engineers. There are still language, political and business interests that have to be agreed in the framework.

In 2012 first mining engineers in Estonia were qualified to the EQF highest level - 8.

1. INTRODUCTION In Estonian occupational qualifications system

the labor market is divided into 16 sectors (on the bases of statistical classification of econom-ic fields in Estonia) and each sector is managed by a sector skills council.

Institutions represented in sector skills coun-cils are nominated by the Government (10-20 institutions) and persons representing these in-stitutions are nominated by the Minister of Edu-cation and Research. Typically institutions rep-resented in sector skills councils are: employers organizations of the sector; trade unions of the sector; professional associations of the sector; education and training institutions; responsible ministries.

The objective of the sector skills council is to register the viewpoints and suggestions of dif-ferent institutions and to achieve a consensus upon working out, developing and implement-ing the occupational qualifications system of the sector. One of the 16 sector skill councils are Energy, Mining and Chemical Industry.

Cooperation between sector skills councils coordinates the Board of Chairmen of Sector Skills Councils (BCSSC). BCSSC decides on the allocation of the initial occupational qualifi-cations in the EstQF and the need to develop higher qualification levels, and approves the need for the development of the occupational qualification standards.

The awarding body is a legal entity nominat-ed by sector skills council. To ensure impartiali-ty in awarding occupational qualifications, the awarding body shall set up an occupational qualification committee that shall consist of the parties interested in awarding occupational qual-ifications in the given field: specialists, employ-ers, employees, trainers, representatives of pro-fessional associations and, if necessary, repre-

22

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24th Annual General Meeting of Society of Mining Professors 23 26 - 29 June 2013, Milos island, Greece

2.2 Mining occupational qualifications system Mining occupational qualifications system is based on the EQF levels. We have a standard for mining engineers at the levels of 6, 7 and 8. EQF level 6 (bachelor of mining engineering) is named a mining engineer, level 7 (master of mining engineering) is named a Diploma Min-ing Engineer and level 8 (doctor of mining en-gineering) is named a Chartered Mining Engi-neer.

The standard contains different parts: *Part A - description of the occupation), provides an overview of the nature of work, major parts of work and tasks, necessary tools, etc. *Part B - is a basis for the assessment of the applicant and Part C - contains general information about the

qualification. The standard contains different fields of mining (quarrying, underground min-ing, planning etc.) the highest level (8) has also the highest responsibilities. Since 2012 there are 2 chartered mining engineers in Estonia.

In addition to the mining engineers’ standard we also have a level 5 occupational standard for shift foremen who have the right to work in more dangerous fields in sand and gravel pits. Since 2012, there are 9 shift foremen working in Estonia who have received the professional cer-tificate.

3. MINING EDUCATION - GEOTECHNOL-OGY CURRICULA Mining education was started in 1938 and the mining curriculum has had different focusses

Table 2: Statistics of the Geotechnology curricula. 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Average

Master degree 5 4 5 3 5 10 4 11 6Bachelor degree 21 13 21 8 4 6 2 10 11PhD degree 1 0 1 4 0 2 2 1 1Master students start 15 12 18 6 13 12 6 11 12Bachelor students start 24 15 11 10 17 21 23 27 19Doctoral students start 2 3 4 3 3 2 5 1 3Master students quota of start 13 14 18 26 20 22 23 16 19Bachelor students quota of start 24 14 24 24 24 29 29 28 25Doctoral students quota of start 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

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24 24th Annual General Meeting of Society of Mining Professors 26 - 29 June 2013, Milos island, Greece

like mining engineering of flat deposits, electri-cal and mining engineering etc. The trend has been from specific to general. Geotechnology curricula started in 2002, it was modified in 2009. In 2013 the curricula is under the evalua-tion and modified to adjust the new qualification framework for mining. Our curriculum is inter-nationally accredited. Beside the modifications in the geotehnology curricula a new internation-al masters curricula is in development and should be opened in 2014.

Geotechnology curricula has about 120 stu-dents total in three levels in 2013. It divides be-tween degrees 10 doctoral students, 30 master students and 80 bachelor students. Statistics are made over the last 8 years (Table 2, Fig. 2). The average quota of starting the studies in the Ge-otechnology curricula is 19 students in master degree, 25 students in bachelor degree and 1 student in doctoral degree in one year. The av-erage number of students who have started stud-ies for a master’s degree is 12, for a bachelor’s degree is 19 and for a doctoral degree is 3. The average number of students who have received a master’s degree is 6, a bachelor’s degree is 10 and a PhD degree is 1.

4. CONCLUSION Mining education and qualification framework in Estonia is in constant change and develop-ment. First qualifications have been awarded and the system has changed from eastern to Eu-ropean.

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