War complicates enterprise-education partnership on workforce training; EDF launches solution project
Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Dmytro Zavgorodny has notes the lack of long-term planning horizons in business for the implementation of personnel training programs in cooperation with educational institutions, that the war with the Russian Federation has only exacerbated this problem, and spoke about measures to solve it.
"The war complicates all this interaction. Despite the fact that a lot of people are needed, and it seems that this is our golden age for educational institutions, because all businesses want, they lack people - mobilization, immigration - but in order to cooperate with an educational institution, the enterprise must have a very long planning horizon," Zavgorodny said during the press conference "Challenges for Business During War: Solutions for the Personnel Market," which was held at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Tuesday.
According to him, in Ukraine "it is difficult to imagine companies that have such a long-term plan." "And this short planning horizon - it greatly hinders cooperation with educational institutions, because most of the vacancies that we talk about as this structural deficit, and the lack of personnel - are urgent matters, and often not entry-level needs, but some important positions. And where to get people with experience if we cannot build a system for these people to systematically acquire this experience?... That is, this is a system that should grow many experienced specialists in various fields," the deputy minister said.
At the press conference, it was noted that the Entrepreneurship Development Fund (EDF) is implementing a project on personnel retraining "From Training to Employment," which is part of the international program Skills4Recovery. Its goal is to unite the efforts of the state, business and international partners to form a modern human resource potential of Ukraine, especially in sectors that will become key for post-war reconstruction. The project helps enterprises find and retrain specialists, and citizens - to get a new profession and a competitive salary.
As noted in the press release, participation in this project provides enterprises with a number of advantages: free closing of personnel needs, search for motivated personnel (each participant undergoes training for specific business requests), financial support (the enterprise receives EUR 300 for the adaptation of each new employee in the workplace).
Chairman of the Board of the EDF Andriy Hapon emphasized that Ukrainian business needs not only material resources, but also people who can acquire a new profession in response to the demand of the labor market. "We are ready to provide enterprises with trained personnel and compensate for the costs of their adaptation with project funds. This is real help to business in wartime conditions," he said.
Deputy Director of the Department of Employment Policy Implementation of the State Employment Center Olena Melnyk noted that today it is especially important to combine the needs of employers and the desire of people for new opportunities. "The project 'From Training to Employment' creates this bridge - between the labor market, education and real employment. We see how through retraining people not only find work, but also regain confidence in the future," she said.
The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, which coordinates the processes of vocational training and digitalization of educational programs, is actively involved in the initiative.
"We focus, first of all, on those organizations, companies, enterprises that have long-term plans and are ready for long-term cooperation in large quantities, who understand that they need to invest now in order, for example, to get something in a year or two. Then it really develops into cooperation that bears significant fruits," said Zavgorodny.
The project "From Education to Employment: Vocational Training for Women and Other Target Groups" is implemented with the financial support of the European Union, Germany, Poland, Estonia and Denmark within the framework of the Multi-Donor Initiative Skills4Recovery, which is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and Solidarity Fund PL (SFPL).
Enterprises of all types of economic activity can participate in the project, with priority given to the following types: construction, transport and logistics, agriculture and the service sector.