Number of continuing education learners at university increases rapidly

In 2015, UT continuing education courses had 37 160 learners, which is nearly 15% more than in the previous year. One reason for the increasing number of participants is free online courses or MOOCs, which the university offers for free.

Head of UT Lifelong Learning Centre Tiia Ristolainen said it is great that learners value the university’s continuing education and its opportunities. Last year every fourth continuing education learner participated in an online or long-distance course. This shows that more and more people prefer partial or completely web-based learning. For example, UT’s eight MOOCs had 3111 learners last year.

Last year there were 1752 continuing education courses at the university. The trainings took place mainly in Tartu but also in Ida-Viru County, Harju County, Viljandi County and Pärnu County. These are regions where the university colleges operate or there is a university representation. Ristolainen highlighted Narva College which offers continuing education in its region for many target groups in various formats and languages.

The main target groups of the university’s continuing education are people who work in education and healthcare, lawyers, entrepreneurs, civil servants etc. More than 90 educational institutions from Estonia and other countries ordered courses from the university last year.

Continuing education programmes were ordered also by several ministries, institutions and enterprises, such as Eesti Energia Narva Power Plants, Leonhard Weiss RTE, ETK, Ensto Ensek, Molycorp Silmet, Playtech Estonia, Nordea Bank AB Estonia Branch, Police and Border Guard Board, Labour Inspectorate, Agency of Medicines, Tax and Customs Board, Ministry of Justice etc.

“The best continuing education programmes are born from the cooperation of the university and the enterprise or institution, based on the customer’s needs,” added Ristolainen.

Have a look at the continuing education offers by the University of Tartu or send a request at www.ut.ee/et/koolitus.

Additional information:

Tiia Ristolainen
Head of UT Lifelong Learning Centre
737 6203, 501 5584
[email protected]