2nd Coordination Meeting of the Skills Alliance for Ukraine - Skills Alliance for Ukraine – Global Partnerships Empowering Vocational & Digital Skills

Structural unemployment remains one of the main challenges today. To overcome it, we are already implementing a number of vocational education programs, retraining and upskilling for Ukrainians. The Skills Alliance for Ukraine initiative should significantly strengthen this area. Today, we have coordinated our efforts with the Alliance members and they have confirmed their commitment to train 190,205 people. This even exceeds the initially announced goal of 180,000 presented at the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2024 in Berlin
Tetyana Berezhna, Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine

The Skills Alliance initiative is being implemented by the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Ukraine needs skilled workers to recover and sustain its economy, and to be able to rebuild the country. Skills Alliance is the answer to this challenge. At the Ukraine Recovery Conference, Yulia Svyrydenko, Minister of Economy of Ukraine, and I launched the Skills Alliance to train specialists for Ukraine’s recovery. Today, 70 countries, organizations and companies participate in the Alliance. This is an encouraging sign
Svenja Schulze, Minister of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

The participants of the event, including representatives of governments, international organisations, donors, business and the public sector, discussed the following:

Labour market needs in key sectors of the economy for Ukraine’s reconstruction and recovery;
Mapping of existing retraining and upskilling programmes;
Innovative projects and initiatives supported by the Skills Alliance members;
Work of the Alliance subgroups in the following areas:
- Upskilling and Vocational Training
- Addressing Special Needs and Ensuring Inclusion
- Vocational Training in Host Countries and Mutual Recognition of Qualifications

They also discussed updates from the Sectoral Working Group on Education.

As Tetyana Berezhna explained, the mapping exercise will allow Skills Alliance members to create learning opportunities for Ukrainians both in Ukraine and abroad. The initiative will also facilitate the integration into the labour market of internally displaced persons, youth, veterans, people with disabilities, and Ukrainians returning home.