Olga Pokotilo
Source: "Newspaper 24"
 
Economists and lawyers are not wanted anymore. Employers are not happy with the level of knowledge of many graduates. They say they the level is not in compliance with the contemporary requirements. This is the reason why many companies have to train their own staff long time in advance. "Azovstal" Steel Works employs about 20% of graduates. And two Mariupol schools have additional 10-form classes training the future elite of "Azovstal" (with intensive study of main subjects at the expense of the Company). In addition, jobs will be provided to 32 more students who have gone through special selection. Five of them get a scholarship from the Steel Works and have signed the employment contracts. The same practice is applied by the Ukrainian and Canadian Project on retraining unemployed population. The Chief Specialist of the Project Gennadiy Rusanov stated: "In three Oblasts of Ukraine employers and leading specialists have jointly with the vocational colleges changed the curriculum and teaching methodology for training adults.
 
Every year companies have to spend millions of hryvnias to retrain young specialists. The reason for retraining on a massive scale lies in studying just for obtaining the certificate of education and students get the wrong profession and cannot display all their talents. Ukrainian school children create contest for the professions of lawyers and economists and don’t want to be trained as blue collar workers. Director of the Foundation for Development of Ukraine Anatoliy Zabolotny thinks that it is necessary to provide employers with the right to influence the number of university places and the curriculum. Mechanisms of interaction between education establishments and entrepreneurs have been recently discussed at the round table in Kyiv.

4.04.07