What the challenges employers, government and society are facing in the future? What is dual education and how to implement it in modern Ukrainian realities?
All this was discussed at the forum «Social dialogue at the regional level», which was held on October, 9 in the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council. The initiator of this event was the Federation of Employers of Dnipropetrovsk region in partnership with the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council, Dnipropetrovsk Investment Agency (DIA), the German employers organization NORDMETAL and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES).
The dual education is a combination of work and study, when an educational institution prepares a young specialist together with an enterprise. The company determines the necessary specialties and makes order to vocational schools. The student combines study and internship at the enterprise. At the same time receives a scholarship close to wages.
The founder of dual education is Germany. Canada, Austria, Switzerland and other countries have already adopted this system on the principle of duality. Now Ukraine is on the path of serious challenges, because successful educational reform will allow young people to confidently build their future in their native land and give an economic and social perspective.
“Today, one of the important issues for Ukraine and the region, in particular, is the lack of qualified technical workers. Firstly, there are not enough specialists demanded by employers, and secondly, there is a problem of personnel outflow abroad. Therefore, we must respond to the needs of the regional labor market and implement the main changes in the vocational education structure”, – Glib Prygunov, the Chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council, said.
Why is this system necessary for Ukraine and how will it be implemented in the region?
According to the Global Competitiveness Index, Ukraine occupies the 11th place, and the quality of personnel training in companies and organizations is at 94 stage. This year, even DTEK, which is a strategically important company in the energy sector, claims a shortage of qualified personnel.
The joint project of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Organization of Employers and German partners is intended to solve these issues. The project is pilot for Ukraine and is introduced for the first time in Dnipropetrovsk region. Using the experience of foreign colleagues, a program is being developed to improve social dialogue, job creation, safe working conditions and the European education standards introduction, taking into account the duality component.
“The labor outflow abroad, the professional staff lack affect the economic development pace and the investment climate of region and Ukraine. More and more Ukrainian enterprises face such problems. According to the International Organization for Migration, the defining characteristic of Ukrainian migrants is a high level of education – four out of five have either higher or vocational education. Therefore, social dialogue between government, business and education representatives will be a serious challenge for the next 5 years, not only for employers in the region, but also for external investors.” – Valentyna Zatyshniak said.
