EU, Poland, Estonia, Germany to Help Train 4,700 Skilled Workers in Ukraine
The European Union, Poland and Estonia have joined the German government's Skills4Recovery programme. Together, they will help train 4,700 skilled Ukrainian workers to expand training opportunities for young people and adults in Ukraine.
This is reported by the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood communication programme.
The EU announced its readiness to fund the Skills4Recovery initiative at the International Conference on Ukraine's Recovery (URC 2024) in Berlin. Estonia and Poland followed suit by strengthening the programme.
EU funding has more than doubled the project budget (from €10 million to €25.5 million), the number of skilled workers to be supported through training (to more than 4,700), and the number of supported vocational education and training providers (to 50). In addition, the geography of the campaign is expanding from six regions to the whole of Ukraine.
‘Today, Ukraine is facing a critical shortage of qualified specialists. According to forecasts, by the 2030s we will need millions of additional workers to rebuild the Ukrainian economy in various sectors, from construction to energy,’ said Dmytro Zavgorodniy, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine.
According to the EU Delegation to Ukraine, the war has led to significant migration and caused serious damage to Ukraine's educational infrastructure. Ukraine lacks more than 100,000 workers, most of them in the service sector and blue-collar occupations. And this number will continue to grow.
According to various forecasts, by the 2030s, Ukraine will need between 4.5 million (Ministry of Economy) and 8.6 million (ILO) additional specialists.
At the same time, the shortage of skills is a bigger problem than the shortage of personnel, according to a labour market study conducted by the Skills4Recovery programme. This is particularly evident in key sectors such as construction, agriculture, transport and logistics, trade and IT.
The joint Skills4Recovery initiative is funded by the European Union, Germany, Poland and Estonia. It is being implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Solidarity Fund PL (SFPL). The Skills4Recovery programme was initiated by the German government in 2023.