National Audit Office and University of Tartu start training environmental auditors

A new open-access online course in environmental auditing will start on 31 October. The experience gained by the National Audit Office in recent years when leading international working groups has pointed out the need to harmonise the expertise of auditors who evaluate compliance with environmental protection requirements, good environmental practices and the principles of sustainable development.

“International experience has shown that more and more environmental audits are conducted by national audit institutions. So far, however, there were no free and easily accessible courses concentrating specifically on environmental auditing in the public sector. In cooperation with the University of Tartu we have created two courses now but I hope there will be more in the coming years. In future we plan to involve also experts from other national audit institutions in compiling the courses,” said the Auditor General Alar Karis about the new online courses.

The Rector of the University of Tartu, Professor Volli Kalm also welcomed the involvement of external partners in the courses. “Over the past few years 11 open online courses have been created in the University of Tartu, and more than 8000 students have participated in them. For the university, the main goal of creating massive open online courses is to offer the opportunity of free study at the level of higher education to different target groups and thereby introduce and diversify the opportunities of studying at the university both for Estonians and people from other countries. The new online courses provide a good example of the joint contribution of the university and the National Audit Office to lifelong learning,” the Rector confirmed.

The massive open online course or MOOC is a free open-registration, fully web-based continuing education course. The new courses are meant primarily for environmental auditors, but also for all others who want to enhance their competence in auditing. In developing the course, the long-term international experience of the National Audit Office in environmental auditing was integrated with the expertise of the University of Tartu in creating and organising online courses.

The first introductory online course “Introduction to Environmental Auditing in the Public Sector” starts on 31 October 2016. The course “Auditing Environmental Impacts of Infrastructure” will open on 9 January 2017. After successful completion of the course, the participants will receive a certificate of the University of Tartu. As the target group of these online courses include auditors all over the world, the courses are conducted in English. Registration is open for both courses.

Information and registration: https://moocs.ut.ee.

Additional information:
Lehti Pilt, Head of UT Centre for Educational Technology, 737 6306, lehti.pilt@ut.ee
Krislin Kivi, Advisor, Development Services, National Audit Office, 640 0100, krislin.kivi@riigikontroll.ee