Socio-demographic data of the sample

• more female civil servants than male,

• more civil servants in urban regions than in small towns or in rural areas,

• more civil servants at the subordinate than at the top administration level,

• more specialists than generalists,

• similar quantity of persons in the two groups of working level (national including county level and local),

• similar quantity of persons with same duration working in the civil service (more or less than 10 years),

• similar quantity of persons in the age groups (younger, middle-aged and older),

• rather similar quantity in the three groups of main working area with a light dominance of the "hard" state tasks.

A total of 1.012 civil servants participated in the pre-training study. The vast majority of 72% were female, 29% were male. About 9 of 10 respondents were living with several persons in their household. The mother tongue of about 96% was Estonian, for 4% Russian and 1% named another language.

The respondents came from all over Estonia: about two third came from Harju (43%), Tartu (12%) and Ida-Viru (10%). One third worked in the other 12 counties (with averagely 3% from every county). Every sixth came out of urban areas of Tallinn (nearly 40%) and other big towns (21%). Every fourth had his or her working place in rural areas: 22% in small towns and 17% in countryside.

About 54% of the respondents were working for the national and regional level in ministries, state offices and inspections, local offices of ministries and state offices or in counties. The other 46% were working for local municipalities.

Chart 1: Composition of respondents: institutional level

0 10 20 30 40 50

local level regional level national level institutional

level

percentage

female male total

One third of the civil servants were either young (from 20 until under 35 years) or older than 49 years. 4 of 10 belonged to the group of middle-aged servants (from 35 - 49 years).

Chart 2: Composition of respondents: age

0 10 20 30 40 50

aged civil servants middle aged civil servants younger civil

servants age

percentage

female male total

A little less than one fifth (18%) of the respondents were working in the civil service already before 1991. A comparable quantity had the newcomers working since 2003 at the civil service with 15%. The vast majority (68%) had started working in the state institutions between 1991 and 2002. If the servants are divided between those

persons working more than 10 years and those working less than 10 years 55% have reached working time of more than ten years in the civil service and 45% started since 1995.

Chart 3: Composition of respondents: duration of the work in the civil service

0 20 40 60

before 1991 1991 until

1994 1995 until

2002 2003 and

later in civil service

percentage

female male total

Of all interviewed civil servants 65% have higher education and about 7% had reached a scientific degree. Significant less women than men had finished higher education. Around 70% of all women and around 80% of all men had higher

education. The main areas of education accounting for around one fifth to one fourth of the higher educated were humanities and social sciences (27%, including

education, pedagogy and culture, music and art), hard sciences and engineering (9%

in industry, energy and construction, 8% in natural sciences inclusive medicines and health, 6% in agriculture) and economics (20%). Around 10% had a diploma in the field of justice and 5% in services. Another 15% had diplomas in different fields or from other institutions than those giving diplomas.

Chart 4: Composition of respondents: education

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

scientific degree higher education high school education

percentage

female male total

Summarising the different position in the institution in two groups a quarter of the respondents were belonging to the top administration (Secretary General, Deputy Secretary General, Director/Manager, Head of department or unit, Secretary of town or local municipality). Three quarter to the group of respondents were advisors, chief specialists and other specialists. 32% of the respondents choose "other position"

which seems that the categories were not well defined enough for the variety of civil service positions in the different levels (national/county and local). Of all respondents two fifth (about 41%) did not have direct subordinates. From the 59% who had direct subordinates most of them (59%) had not more than 3 subordinates. Another 26%

had 4 to 10 subordinates. 9% of the respondents had 11 up to 20 and 6% more than 20 subordinates.

Chart 5: Composition of respondents: having subordinates

0 20 40 60

NA or no subordinates

up to 3 subordinates

4-10 subordinates more than 10 subordinates

percentage

female male total

Regarding hierarchy a gender gap becomes visible as significantly more male than female respondents were in top administration and significantly more male civil servants had subordinates: 25% of all males do not have subordinates while 48% of all female civil servants had no subordinates. Moreover the number of subordinates was lower for women and higher for men. Furthermore did middle-aged civil servants have significantly more often more than 4 subordinates compared to members of the other age groups.

The working area "core" state tasks (like justice, border guard, police forces, defence forces and international relations) was occupied by 23% of the respondents. "Soft"

state tasks (culture and education, labour market, social security and health) were performed by 33% and 44% of the respondents were acting in the "hard" state tasks (economy, communication and infrastructure, financial spheres). The distribution according to sex is not significant, but relatively more men were working in the hard state tasks, while relatively more women were working in the soft state tasks.

Chart 6: Composition of respondents: main working area

0 20 40 60

hard state tasks soft state

tasks core state

tasks working area

percentage

female male total

Regarding the working speciality 14% can be described as "generalists" working in fields of general relevance for the civil service like law and public administration.

About 86% were "specialists" performing their duties in specialised fields like economy or education.