As the European Union and Ukraine reinforce political and economic cooperation, the small business community comes centre stage in a strategic policy monitoring drive.  As part of a wider policy alignment exercise to improve Ukraine’s small business performance, enterprise stakeholders met with ETF experts on 12-13 May to review how the education and training system could better contribute to the national competitiveness drive.

‘A primary challenge for the Ukrainian authorities is to ensure that the various parts of the lifelong learning system connect up more strategically so that young people, in particular, develop more entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviour,’ says Timo Kuusela, ETF’s country manager for Ukraine. ‘An important factor here is to promote entrepreneurship as a key competence especially in early education to be followed up by more developed business skills in vocational and higher education,’ he continues.

The assessment, involving a set of indicators that are being applied to all the European Union’s eastern neighbourhood countries, forms an integral part of the European Union’s cooperation framework for the Small Business Act (SBA). The indicators address ten enterprise development areas including lifelong entrepreneurial learning and enterprise skills that make up the human capital pillar of the Small Business Act.

‘We appreciate the emphasis given by Ukraine to improving skills for enterprises with a growth perspective,’ says Kuusela, adding that ‘businesses on a growth path will more likely engage in European trade, contribute to a more competitive Ukrainian economy as well as improving employment prospects in the country.’

Svitlana Svischeva, Deputy Chair of the State Committee for Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship who coordinates Ukraine’s SBA drive, welcomes the ETF assessment. ‘The Small Business Act is an important reference for Ukraine while the indicators enable the range of stakeholders to get to a common policy focus, determining challenges and solutions to existing policies as well as new opportunities. Our aim is less on measurement and more on getting a comprehensive policy picture, knowing where we stand and what we can do next,’ says Ms Svischeva.

 ETF supports the European Commission’s Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry in the promotion of the human capital dimensions of the Small Business Act in the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood and pre-accession regions.

For more information, contact Timo Kuusela