A culinary hub has opened at Vasylkiv Vocational College, creating a space that brings together education, community and business to secure a better future for Ukrainian children in their homeland.

The culinary career guidance hub was created in partnership with the DECIDE Project team, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Kyiv Regional State Administration and the Vasylkiv Vocational College. This collaboration covered everything from designing the premises and engineering solutions to selecting equipment and training production masters. The total budget for the project exceeds UAH 5.5 million. Almost UAH 3.8 million of this was provided by DECIDE, over UAH 610,000 came from the regional budget and UAH 1.14 million came from the educational institution’s own funds.

The main function of the hub is to provide career guidance to schoolchildren in the Vasylkiv community. College students will act as tutors, introducing schoolchildren to culinary professions. Last year, over 1,000 local schoolchildren took part in career guidance events, including those organised as part of DECIDE: VET.

The hub also offers the following opportunities:

• training school chefs to meet new standards;
• developing small businesses through catering, masterclasses and own products;
• training a new generation of chefs and confectioners;
• retraining the adult population and supporting vulnerable groups.

The residents of the hub and partners of the vocational college are: ASHAN Hypermarket Ukraine LLC, SILPO-FOOD LLC, Kyiv BCC LLC, Foodservice Municipal Enterprise, Ventilation Systems LLC.

‘We created the culinary career guidance hub with the support of the Embassy of the Swiss Confederation in Ukraine, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Science, the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, and Vasylkiv Vocational College. This hub is part of the reform of school nutrition and vocational education. School chefs from communities in the Kyiv region will undergo retraining here. Most importantly, however, this space will open up the world of professions to schoolchildren and college students from the Vasylkiv community. I would like to thank all our business partners who are ready to develop this hub with us and invest in young people – this is an investment in the future of Ukraine’s economy,’ says Valentyna Poltorak, DECIDE Project Manager.

After a year of intensive work with the college, vocational training instructors completed the Agents of Change programme as part of the school nutrition reform, which we implemented jointly with the Ministry of Education and Science, CultFood Yevhen Klopotenko, the Public Catering Association, and the School Nutrition Reform Team.

The highlight of the opening was Olha Martynovska, a chef and judge on MasterChef, who demonstrated modern culinary techniques together with college teachers.