In re-independent Estonia during the last 25 years multiple parallel reform policies has been introduced – national curricula development, introduction of professional qualification system, re-organisation of the network of schools etc. Nevertheless, despite to the reform initiatives the major challenges as the low standing/prestige of vocational education in the educational hierarchy in Estonia (Pärtel & Petti, 2013) and the decoupling between the VET and labour market (Ümarik, Loogma & Hinno, 2010), also suffered by many other European countries (CEDEFOP, 2013) has remained. In this paper we analyse the changes and continuities, brought about by the main reforms in the historical development course of vocational education and training. We are arguing that historical perspective enables to reveal certain historical moments or turning points, marking the changes towards emerging and widening the gap between VET supply and labour market demands and low standing of the VET we can witness today.

Our paper focuses on the institutional design of Estonian VET system under the Soviet rule and in post-Soviet Estonia, as one of the specific cases of post-Communist countries. We agree with authors (e.g. Đurić, 2012) arguing that many studies have failed to pay adequate attention to the impact of the past legacies and institutions in explaining the present institutional setup in post-Soviet countries. The main aim of this paper is to provide a systemic narrative of the historical development of the VET system in Estonia (1944-2015) and outline the major reforms leading to certain turning points in frame of the historical timeline.

In our theoretical framework the concepts of path dependency has been used in explaining the institutional changes or rather hindrance to changes on the field of VET in post-Soviet Estonia. Concept of path dependency refers to an adherence to a certain direction or structural characteristic, while adopted, by generating institutional inflexibility and resistance to change. (Đurić, 2012)

On the other hand, our focus of analysis is on the role of the international actors (donors, experts) and globalization tendencies in the frame of the VET reform process during the last 25 years. Therefore we have applied the policy transfer / policy learning approach in order to conceptualise the reform processes on the field of VET after the re-independence.

The fundamental societal and educational changes, taking place in Estonia like other post-socialist countries in the 1990s and later, can be considered not only the consequence of the post-socialist political regime change and transition to democratic society and market economy. With the opening up to the rest of the world, globalization processes, including  globally “travelling” neoliberal education reform ideas and policies (e.g Seddon, Ozga, Levin, 2013; Sahlberg, 2011 etc) affecting the education systems internationally, started to inform the  education reform processes in Estonia very quickly (even in time of perestroika) via different policy arenas as neighbouring countries, like Finland (see Toots, 2012), EU educational agencies (ETF), and other transnational agencies (IMF, WB). Since mid-1990s the neoliberal standardization policy has become more and more influential in VET.  Although the two transitions happened in parallel for newly independent countries, they had principally different nature and different drivers and thus, influenced differently on education and labour market structures (Loogma, 2004).  

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