Financing of Vocational Education and Training in Ukraine

Financing of Vocational Education and Training in Ukraine: Key Issues and Challenges at Stake, and Policy Questions for a National Dialogue

This ETF policy note provides an analysis of the key issues at stake in Ukraine regarding VET financing reforms, to support discussion in the country.

Short description:

In 2016 Ukraine was engaged in drafting key legislation for VET reform, while the VET system was simultaneously being impacted by a new law on education and a general process of decentralising public administration.

VET was the first domain of public administration to undergo the process of decentralisation, and one of the most important consequences of this was the transfer of responsibility for VET financing from central government to regional administrations and to the institutions that make up and support the regional networks of providers. This change would provide regional administrations and the regional network with greater levels of autonomy and accountability for outcomes. It would require the design and development of regionally adapted systems for VET financing, along with measures for piloting and rolling out the new practices, processes and systems, including the means of building the capabilities needed to operate them.

This task was complicated by the new law on education, which called for the re-qualification of higher education institutions and the transfer of a significant number of these to the VET network, creating a need to re-structure VET networks at the regional level and introducing a new system for categorising VET providers – closing some, merging others and creating entirely new structures to align with the needs of regional economies.

Change on this scale requires intense consultation and coordination involving the vertical and horizontal chains of VET governance. This policy note provided basic guidelines for the start of talks with key actors of the VET system in Ukraine, with a focus on the challenge of VET finance reform.

You may read the document below.