Regions calling
Ukraine’s 25 regions lead the way in reforming skills development
The Torino Process comes to Ukraine this week. The Ukrainian Minister of Education and Science, Lilia Hrynevych opened the fifth round of the European Training Foundation’s (ETF) flagship assessment of progress in skills development at an event in Kyiv today (21 March 2019).
‘We need the Torino Process to inform our reforms and help to explain the importance of VET’, she said to the over 50 attendees from all over the country. Each of the 24 Ukrainian oblasts was represented at the meeting, along with the city of Kyiv and high level national officials from ministries of Education and Science, of Social Policy, and of Economic Development and Trade.
Ukraine has been working with the ETF on the Torino Process since 2010, but it was in the last round 2014-16 that it took its biggest step – bringing it to the country’s 25 regions. This coincided with a new policy on devolved financial and management responsibility for VET.
Cesare Onestini, Director of the European Training Foundation, underlined how the Torino Process is well-connected to the on-going reform process in the country and supports the new EU project on Skills for Ukraine.
‘Ukraine’s involvement in the Torino Process is unique’, said Viktoria Karbysheva, National Coordinator of Torino Process in Ukraine. ‘In the last round we decided to take it nationwide into all the regions. The results were incredible because of the regional input and we are going to repeat the process this time’.
Rising up
It is not just at national level that vocational education and training has risen up the agenda in Ukraine. With a new €58 million programme ‘EU4Skills: Better Skills for Better Jobs in Modern Ukraine 2018-2020, launched at the beginning of this year, it is also in the limelight in terms of EU support. Stefan Schleuning from the EU Delegation in Ukraine says ‘it is time to step-up for improvement in education and we are here to help together with the ETF.’
Summing up the opening session, Margareta Nikolovska, the ETF’s country coordinator for Ukraine explained what would be the key outcomes of this round of the Torino Process which will be completed in 2020. With all regions on-board, Ukraine is teaching us about participation – the founding principle of the Torino Process, she said.
The next steps will be the preparation of all 25 regional reports, plus a national report and an ETF assessment. The ETF will bring all countries of the Eastern Partnership region (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) together to examine regional trends in skills development towards the end of this year.
Background
Inspired by the EU’s Bruges/Copenhagen Process, the Torino Process is a participatory evidence-based assessment of countries’ progress in modernising their skills development and vocational education and training system in a holistic and lifelong perspective.
Launched for the first time in 2010, the Torino Process is being conducted for the fifth time in 2018-20 in 27 countries with the participation of a wide range of stakeholders from government, business, civil society and international donors. The results will be presented at an international conference in 2021.
To know more about Torino Process: https://europa.eu/!JK46ku
To know more about the ETF's activities in Ukraine: https://europa.eu/!Dt94mR
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