Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Education met with business to discuss funding strategy for vocational education

Minister of Finance Oleksandr Danyliuk and Minister of Education Lilyia Grynevych, Deputy Minister of Finance Sergii Marchenko, and Deputy Minister of Education Pavlo Khobzey including Program Manager of the European Training Foundation Margareta Nikolovska held a joint meeting with representatives of business associations and large employer companies aiming to elaborate common strategy to funding vocational schools. The meeting was attended by representatives of more than 30 companies from the agriculture, metallurgy, energy, telecommunications and other sectors.

The Ministry of Finance cooperates closely with the Ministry of Education on decentralization of educational system and financing issues of vocational schools which helps to enhance the quality of education and, as a result, to prepare competitive and highly qualified workforce.

Today there is a paradoxical situation when graduates cannot find jobs while labor market suffers from a decrease of qualified workers. During the meeting new possibilities to funding technical schools at the local level were discussed which involve major employers whose experience is based on the best EU practices.

Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk stated that the financing of vocational schools which local budgets cannot provide, makes up 1.2 billion UAH. However, the experience of European countries shows that state budget is not the only source to fund vocational schools. 

In countries with successful reform of technical education, representatives of educational institutions, local authorities, business and industry hold an active dialogue. “The establishment of the modern system for education of highly qualified workforce which would require no extra costs for retraining right after graduation, lies in the interests of employers. Therefore, the participation of employers in co-financing of vocational schools may be the best approach to solve funding issues of vocational education. We realize that government should make step towards those companies which support this initiative”, Oleksandr Danyliuk said.

Minister of Education Lilyia Grynevych suggested to strengthen efforts of the Ministries and employers in order to design an optimized system of vocational education and to avoid duplication of functions, or creation of parallel systems of education. "The fundamental issue for us in frame of vocational education is to preserve state funding for the secondary education. It's a different matter that additional funding of vocational component may include state programs, regional order (from regions and cities) or branch order (institutions, enterprises, companies). At present time regional state administrations have to submit to the Ministry of Education its development plans regarding vocational education. Therefore, we will be able to analize general picture and to take a decision regarding optimization of this network as well as to omit duplication of specialties", Minister of Education Liliya Hrynevych stated.

Program Manager of the European Training Foundation Margareta Nikolovska added that underfunding of vocational education creates problem which needs time and involvement of different stakeholders. "Creation of the dialogue between companies and educational system is necessary because this cooperation leads to the development of both citizens and country", Margareta Nikolovska said.

The representatives of the companies also noted a number of systematic issues in vocational education, in particular, imbalance in volumes and educational directions and economic needs, labour market, lack of standards and criteria of professional education that would ensure highly qualified workforce and satisfy employer’s demands. Generally business representatives stated about the necessity to consider the efficiency of workforce education at present difficult economic situation and expressed their willingness to support vocational education and cooperate with state bodies and local authorities.