The European Training Foundation, Ukraine’s partner for more than 30 years, has been investing substantial efforts and resources into improving, decentralising and reforming the vocational education and training landscape. In June 2024, during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin, the ETF announced the launch of the Skills Alliance for Ukraine.
‘It is impressive to see how, despite the war, Ukraine continues developing its vocational education and training – VET – system. Besides its importance for this country’s reconstruction and future demography, VET can also be an instrument for veterans to reintegrate civilian life; it can help to build back a stronger economy, and a society even more closely knitted together, in which the scars of war can heal better, and quicker.’
This decision was made based on a review of the situation that emerged as a result of the war – a critical shortage of skills in the country that are needed for the post-war recovery, both in the short and long term.
The total budget of the initiative is
EUR 700 million.
The Alliance will bring together a multitude of stakeholders and will be based on principles that will ensure that at least 180 000 Ukrainians acquire the necessary skills and qualifications. The European Union, represented by the European Commission, announced its accession to the Skills Alliance for Ukraine and pledged to contribute to the achievement of the Alliance’s planned outcomes. As the EU Ambassador to Ukraine, Katarína Mathernová, noted in her address to the Ukrainian teachers’ community on the occasion of Teacher’s Day, ‘We are working to make the European Education Area truly united, together with Ukraine.’
