More than half of the job vacancies offered by employers are intended for skilled workers. This was reported by Deputy Minister of Education and Science Dmytro Zavhorodnyi.
This is reported by Finway
“More than half of all vacancies that enterprises plan to open are for skilled workers, machine maintenance workers, and the simplest professions. That is, these are people without higher education. … The profile of the unemployed in Ukraine, who are registered with the State Employment Service, mostly consists of people with higher education who want jobs that match their qualifications and education. However, the majority of vacancies reported to the same employment service are precisely for skilled workers,” said Zavhorodnyi.
In particular, according to a joint study by the Ministry of Education and Science and international partners regarding the labor market, which Zavhorodnyi cited, 26% of vacancies are open for skilled workers with tools, 25% for equipment maintenance workers, 12% for the simplest professions, 7% for workers in trade and services, 6% for managers, and 4% for technical staff.
Moreover, according to him, employers often complain about the mismatch between the knowledge of specialists and the needs of the labor market, as well as the insufficient number of specialists in various fields.
Government Initiatives in Education
Dmytro Zavhorodnyi noted that the government is actively working to address the imbalance in the labor market by developing educational programs for adults.
“The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Economy are doing a lot to ensure that adults in Ukraine—unemployed individuals, veterans, internally displaced persons, women, and simply adults who want to change their profession—can quickly acquire a new profession or specialty and immediately start working. We are collaborating with businesses, working with international organizations, and the State Employment Service. In the past few years, there have been hundreds of programs where adults can come and retrain… Tens of thousands of people have already completed this training, just in vocational education institutions last year. And we hope that their numbers will only increase,” said Zavhorodnyi.
Additionally, as the deputy minister added, an infrastructure project aimed at updating workshops in vocational education institutions is being actively implemented.
“Last year, we updated 88 workshops with a subsidy from the state budget, this year we will update 89 workshops, and together with international partners, we will update more than 50 workshops each year,” said Zavhorodnyi.
Updating Educational Standards
This year, the updating of all educational standards in vocational pre-higher education is ongoing. Zavhorodnyi emphasized that the Ministry is constantly developing new programs in vocational education, both short-term and long-term, focusing on new professional standards.
The Verkhovna Rada has already adopted in the first reading a draft law that provides for financial autonomy for vocational education institutions and the creation of supervisory boards with representatives from employers. This will allow employers to significantly influence educational programs and their content, as well as the introduction of grants for obtaining education through dual training.