Over the years of Russia’s full-scale war, Ukraine’s labor force has shrunk from 17.5 million to 12.5 million. The country already faces an acute need for skilled workers. In these conditions, the role of vocational education is rapidly increasing—it can provide the specialists the market needs faster than most other pathways. Yet today, only 20–30% of graduates from vocational education institutions (VEIs) end up working in their field.

Greater opportunities for development, transformation, and growth are being opened up by the new Law “On Vocational Education,” which has paved the way for real autonomy for vocational institutions: managerial, financial, pedagogical, and partnership-based. Autonomy is not only freedom of action; it also means the ability to think strategically, manage resources, build partnerships, and respond to the real needs of the economy.

Analysts from the NGO EasyBusiness conducted a fundamental study of the current state of autonomy, drawing on survey data from 37 vocational education institutions across 16 regions and Kyiv. The study became the first step of the project “Vocational Education: Autonomy of the Future (PAF),” which helps vocational institutions turn autonomy into a practical tool for development.

This is exactly what a new series of articles for Vchiysia.Media is about, created by PAM project experts Yaroslav Zhydyk, Snizhana Leu-Severynenko, and Valeriia Shemshuchenko.

Read on to learn:

• how autonomy works in practice;
• how vocational institutions can become strong in management and finance;
• how to build partnerships with businesses and communities;
• how to turn ideas into projects and grants;
• how to make education quality a tool for development.

The first article in the series: “When autonomy becomes a resource for recovery: how the new Law ‘On Vocational Education’ can strengthen the labor market”

The project “Vocational Education: Autonomy of the Future” is implemented by the NGO EasyBusiness with financial support from the European Union, Germany, Poland, Estonia, and Denmark under the multi-donor initiative Skills4Recovery, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ Ukraine) GmbH and Solidarity Fund PL in Ukraine (SFPL). Information partner: Vchiysia.Media.