The event was held in cooperation with the Ida-Viru County Vocational Education Center COSMOS at its headquarters in Jõhvi. According to the organizers, Estonia lacks up and coming technical specialists and engineers, while the current workforce is rapidly aging.

"Young people are very motivated; they want to prove themselves. At the moment, engineering is an area where they can prove themselves and earn good money," Daria Saar, head of the Engineering Day project, told ERR.

"Of course, it is very promising for them to go and study at vocational schools. Especially since reforms are currently underway and they are being modernized. After technical school, any student can go on to these higher education institutions," Saar added.

The vocational education center noted that one of its important tasks now is to transition to teaching with Estonian as the only language of instruction. Doing so will help young people find high-paying jobs or continue their education at university in Estonia in the future.

"In our region, many graduates of Russian-language schools have a poor command of Estonian, so it is simply impossible for them to study subjects in a language they do not understand. Now we have to make up for what they previously missed at school," Agur added.

For some students, that can be difficult, as scientific subjects do not come easily to them. Others enjoy them a lot and are already planning to pursue careers in engineering.

"It's very interesting. Basically, I really like it. However, it is a little difficult because engineering involves all this math and physics, and I have problems with those subjects," said 9th grade student Tatjana Saulits.

"I plan to become an electrical engineer because I really like making all kinds of small things. In the future, I would also like to go to university and study engineering," said another 9th grader, Alex Aardam.

Around 230 students from ten schools in Ida-Viru County took part in the event.

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