Mondo supports Ukrainian vocational education to meet the needs of the labor market changed by the war

Due to the full-scale war, the significantly changed Ukrainian labor market lacks people in several sectors necessary for the reconstruction of the country. Vocational education plays a key role here in ensuring modern and flexible retraining opportunities for those who can contribute to the labor market. Over the past two years, Mondo has supported the nationwide reform of Ukrainian vocational education so that it is modern and able to respond to the shortages in the labor market caused by the war.

Oleksii, who comes from the Kharkiv region, is one of those who underwent retraining at the age of 45 and today works as a train conductor. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Ukrainian train conductors became heroes who helped evacuate civilians. Although the work is dangerous, it is extremely important, ensuring connections and significantly supporting the functioning of the country.

Oleksii decided to make his contribution. At the age of 45, he began studying at the Lyubotyn Vocational Lyceum of Railway Transport and has now been working as a passenger train conductor for three years. „When trains continue to move even during air attacks, you realize that you are doing more than just your job. You help the country keep functioning and maintain the connection between cities and people,“ says Oleksii.

Over 600 trained education experts
Ukraine is facing a critical labor shortage in the construction, transport, energy, and industrial sectors. At the same time, the skills gap has also widened, where people’s skills do not meet today’s labor market needs. One important reason is the full-scale war, now in its fifth year, which has taken a disproportionately large number of unskilled and skilled workers from the labor market, whom Ukraine needs for its recovery.

Over the past two years, Mondo has supported the nationwide reform of Ukrainian vocational education within the multidonor initiative Skills4Recovery, so that it is modern and able to respond to the shortages in the labor market caused by the war.

The important role of an educational technologist
As an important innovation, Mondo started developing a Ukrainian educational technology curriculum in cooperation with two Ukrainian vocational education institutions. In addition, 8 educational experts from the Zhytomyr region acquired a micro-degree in educational technology at the University of Tartu. An educational technologist is a specialist who supports the implementation of innovative solutions in educational institutions. The need for this specialist stems from the challenges of the education system, where the environment is constantly changing and new digital tools, services, and platforms are added every day. Implementing them alongside the main job is becoming increasingly difficult. The role of the educational technologist is to help teachers navigate this rapidly changing digital environment: to choose suitable solutions, support their implementation in teaching, and guide the entire school family in adopting innovations.

Within the framework of the Skills4Recovery initiative, 634 teachers and management members from 45 Ukrainian vocational education institutions completed Mondo’s digital competence program and participated in study visits to Estonia. The 16–32 hour training sessions of the digital competence program provided participants with the knowledge and skills to integrate professional digital solutions into the curriculum, use modern digital tools, and increased the capacity of educators and school management to provide quality education and better include people with special needs, of whom there are more in the country than before due to the war. Visits to Estonia introduced the work of local vocational education centers, Estonia’s innovative educational landscape, and promoted further cooperation between the two countries in the field of education.

Conference on the digitalization of vocational education
The nationwide education conference for vocational education institutions on digital skills and management, held in Kyiv in March 2026, provided an opportunity to discuss the various opportunities and obstacles offered by the digital and technology fields. At the conference with 180 participants, it was emphasized that the digitalization of vocational education is an inevitability demanded by the labor market. At the same time, it was acknowledged that rapidly developing digital solutions, such as artificial intelligence, do not replace humans, but can replace a specialist who does not know how to use them.

Vocational education training, the conference, and the development of the educational technology curriculum are part of Mondo’s activities in the multidonor initiative Skills4Recovery, and represent one of Estonia’s largest contributions to promoting quality education in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war.