On 4 February, the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine approved the draft law on amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine in terms of the vocational training funding (No. 3831-2) and the draft law on amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2016" in terms of the vocational training funding (No. 3830-3).

The approved legislative acts set forth that expenditures for the training of regular labor force in vocational institutions located in the cities of regional subordinance - regional centers shall be funded by the budgets of those cities, and in other territories, by regional budgets. Vocational training in Kyiv is funded by the city budget.

In addition, the approved draft laws provide for:

• increase in the amount of educational subvention to regional budgets, the Kyiv city budget, and budgets of cities - regional centers by means of allocation of a part of the educational subvention reserve in the amount of UAH 877.9 million;
• granting a subvention from the state budget to regional budgets, the Kyiv city budget, and budgets of cities - regional centers to support the training of regular labor force in vocational and other educational institutions in the amount of UAH 997.9 million, which subvention is to be provided for as part of national spending of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, at the expense of relevant decrease of the stabilization subsidy provided for as part of national spending of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine.

Thus, the cities of regional subordinance are released from the duty to fund vocational training institutions.

In its turn, on 4 February, the Government adopted a resolution on appropriation from the state budget of stabilization subsidy in the amount of UAH 500 million to regional budgets for the purposes of funding vocational training institutions.

Pursuant to that decision, regional budgets will allocate the funds received between the cities of regional subordinance where there is an actual insufficiency of funds. This will allow to support local budgets which are unable to secure funding of vocational training institutions and proper operation of vocational schools by themselves.