Providing the opportunity to acquire a new, relevant profession, retrain, or enhance professional skills can help attract hundreds of thousands of economically inactive Ukrainians to the labor market, said Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Tatyana Berezhnaya during the business forum "Training Specialists in Vocational Education Centers of the State Employment Service: Educating Ukrainians for Business Needs" in Kharkiv on Wednesday.
As noted in a statement on the Ministry of Economy's website, according to research conducted by the Institute of Demography and Social Research named after M.V. Ptukha, currently 13.3 million Ukrainians are employed, nearly one million are actively seeking work and ready to start soon. At the same time, 12.5 million Ukrainians are economically inactive.
"In particular, these are individuals who cannot find suitable jobs in their profession or lack the necessary skills or education. This group also includes students, homemakers, retirees who have reached retirement age but could still work, women on maternity leave, and people with disabilities. These are the very individuals who can be drawn into the labor market by providing them with the opportunity to master a new, relevant profession, retrain, or upgrade their professional level," the agency quotes Berezhnaya.
According to her, Ukrainians can achieve this through educational programs introduced by the government, particularly in the vocational education centers of the State Employment Service.
The Deputy Minister of Economy reminded that a reform of vocational education centers is currently underway, aimed at enhancing their capabilities, particularly by involving businesses in the supervisory boards of vocational training centers.
According to the Ministry of Economy, there are currently 41 licensed professions and 75 qualification improvement educational programs offered at the Kharkiv vocational training center. In 2024, almost 2,300 specialists were trained at the center, including 1,627 unemployed individuals, 86 combat veterans, 230 people who studied on vouchers, and another 335 specialists who were trained at the expense of employers.
As of today, there are eight vocational education centers of the State Employment Service operating in Ukraine - in Odesa, Poltava, Dnipro, Rivne, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, and Sumy. These centers train specialists in 98 trades and over 400 areas of qualification improvement.