During the event, experts from all over Ukraine and international partners discussed challenges and solutions to improve the quality of education and adapt to the modern labour market.
The day before, on 20 August, a two-day seminar entitled “Vocational Education Content: Challenges, Losses, and Approaches to Overcome” began in Lviv. The organisers were the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (Directorate of Vocational Education) and the international non-governmental organisation Finn Church Aid.
The seminar was attended by heads of vocational education institutions from all over Ukraine, heads of regional vocational school boards, and specialists from scientific and methodological centres for vocational education. The event was moderated by Iryna Shumik, Director General of the Directorate of Vocational Education at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
“How the best vocational education and training institutions are built, how they go through modernisation, and how their experience can be used to create new training and practical centres and upgrade workshops, as well as to modernise the educational space in general,” said Iryna Shumik, outlining the seminar’s topic.
She also emphasised that the seminar will also focus on the experience of Finland, where vocational education is one of the best in the world, as evidenced by the results of numerous studies conducted by RISA.
Dmytro Zavgorodnyi, Deputy Minister of Education and Science, made an opening speech to the seminar participants. First of all, he thanked the Finnish partners for enabling Ukrainian vocational education and training providers to gain new knowledge, share experiences, learn about educational institutions in different regions, and adopt best practices.
Dmytro Zavgorodnyi emphasised: “It is very important for us that, along with steps aimed at updating infrastructure and equipment, ensuring the safety and quality of distance learning, we work in parallel to modernise the content of education and teaching methods. This is what this seminar is all about, and this is what is most important: making vocational education relevant to the labour market and the needs of industries.”
Meanwhile, Oleksandr Kulepin, deputy head of the Lviv Regional Education Agency, noted that vocational education has all the prerequisites for introducing quality methods.
“Before the seminar, we were discussing a new direction that we are launching in one of the vocational schools in Lviv region. And the question arose: what should we teach and by what methodology. I would like to note that specialists are now working on these issues and are ready to do everything to ensure that, firstly, we have modern professions and disciplines in vocational education, and secondly, that there is an innovative methodology and that in the digital age photography is not taught using manuals that tell about photographic film,” said Oleksandr Kulepin.
He also sincerely thanked Finn Church Aid for supporting the development of vocational education in Ukraine.
In turn, Iryna Kudina, press manager of Finn Church Aid, said: “We are interested in vocational schools because they can earn their own money. Therefore, the main focus of our assistance is to create workshops and provide them with modern equipment. But these workshops need to employ skilled workers, so it is important to understand what is taught in vocational education and training.”
According to her, this is the third training seminar organised jointly with the Ministry of Education as part of a project to restore vocational training in Chernihiv Oblast, where the international organisation actually started its activities in Ukraine.
Oleh Paska, Director of the Department of Education and Science at the Lviv Regional State Administration, stressed that such seminars are very much needed, and are a good opportunity to review what the Ministry and its departments have done to develop vocational education and training and to set strategic goals for the next year: “It is very symbolic that such a meeting is being held with the support of Finnish partners, where vocational education is really at a high level. Secondly, the seminar takes place on the eve of the start of the new academic year, which allows us to talk about a kind of all-Ukrainian August conference in vocational education.”
Oleg Paska also added: “If we talk about the strategic goals for vocational education in Lviv region, it is the introduction of new professions, the opening of new training and practical centres and, as a result, an increase in the number of students in the vocational education system so that after the war we have specialists to rebuild our country and economy.”
As for the challenges facing vocational education in Ukraine, the Director General of the Directorate of Vocational Education of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine said:
“The most important challenge we face today is the start of the new academic year, the formation of a safe learning environment for our students, the retention of staff and, of course, the quality of vocational education.
It is difficult to achieve all of this with limited resources, but we have great partners, in particular, the non-governmental organisation Finn Church Aid. Among other things, they support the Ministry of Science in restoring the educational process. We are talking about rebuilding vocational education institutions damaged by the war. This includes repairing workshops, dormitories, shelters and purchasing equipment.
In addition, we are still working to make vocational education more interesting and meaningful, which means updating the curriculum. In fact, Finland has an excellent experience of flexible education. This is very important for us. After all, some of us have gone abroad, some have not made it home, some have family problems, and from this point of view, the development of such flexible programmes would be very useful for us.”
Regarding the state of vocational education in the Lviv region, Iryna Shumik noted that Lviv is one of the regions that invests a lot of financial resources in the development of vocational education: “Today we can say that there are some of the best vocational education institutions here, and at the same time, the region has the largest number of students in Ukraine, which is also a challenge for a border region in terms of migration processes.
It is also a pleasant surprise that new professions are emerging. These are operators of unmanned aerial vehicles, and a completely new profession that we are currently working on – scaffolder. We also met with representatives of the Lviv IT cluster to discuss the introduction of IT professions in the vocational education system. Therefore, in my opinion, the indifference and desire to meet the modern requirements of the labour market is the experience we came to Lviv region to gain.”
A video of the seminar will be available on the official YouTube channel of the Ministry of Education.
For reference.
Finn Church Aid, a non-governmental international organisation, was established in 1947 after Russia attacked Finland. Today it specialises in providing humanitarian aid in the field of education.