Changes in the system of funding of vocational education and training (VET) institutions should address the problems of personnel training, as well as provide new incentives for cooperation with employers. For this purpose, the experts of the Ministry of Education and Science have already developed a number of proposals, but they need to be finalised and pass through consultations with other Ministries. This issue was discussed during the working meeting with the Government and business representatives, held today, on 1 August 2018, at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

The meeting was attended by the representatives of the Ministry of Social Policy, Ministry of Finance, MinRegion and Ministry of Infrastructure, as well as heads of professional unions and associations.

“Small part of state funding accounts for education by professions of national importance. Besides, state funding covers the acquisition of the general secondary education for students enrolled in vocational establishments. Then, the whole burden falls on the local self-government bodies. We want to add other incentives and funding sources to ensure access to high-quality and modern vocational education currently required by the labour market. Therefore, we need to improve the funding mechanism of VET institutions and consider the involvement of different sources for this process. At present, the experts of the Ministry of Education and Science have developed several mechanisms for this procedure, and I hope that together we will come to constructive solutions,” noted Liliya Hrynevych, Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine.

The Ministry of Education and Science has prepared 3 key proposals for multi-level financing of VET institutions:

• sectoral order: preparing to implement a large-scale programme or order, a state / communal enterprise finances training of workers, who will continue to work on the implementation of the programme;
• interbudgetary transfers: the city council decides to transfer funds from the city budget to the oblast one. The volume of the order will be determined in proportion to the number of students registered in the city or oblast centre;
• involving employers in the educational process: 1) training of students according to the dual form of education; 2) training at the expense of an employer.

Thus, in order for business representatives to have additional guarantees in financing the training of employees, the participants considered the possibility of developing a typical agreement that the employer will conclude with a student and a representative of the educational institution. In this way, the student will receive free of charge education and will get a workplace after graduation, and the employer will have a qualified worker with a guaranteed work period.

The participants also considered other important VET requirements: a possible mechanism for the formation of a sectoral order, elaboration of documents that would systematise dual education, payment of the tax on equipment that can be transferred by the enterprise to the VET institution free of charge, etc.

At present, the parties have agreed to consider the Ministry’s proposals with specialists of their departments and to provide their recommendations.