VET-Partnerhip with Ukraine – Building Bridges in Times of War

The written interview with Mrs Yuliia Krasnovyd was conducted in June 2025.

Ukraine has been at war for three years. What is the current significance of skilled crafts and vocational education in skilled crafts in Ukraine?

The war has changed many things—both in individual lives and in the broader social fabric. Attitudes toward skilled crafts have also shifted. Skilled crafts professions, previously underestimated, are now seen as systemically relevant. In Ukraine today, skilled crafts professionals are considered a strategic asset—and there is an acute shortage of them.

The shortage is especially severe in areas like infrastructure, repair, and maintenance services. In the plumbing sector, which is the focus of our project, the situation is particularly strained: Many experienced professionals are currently at the front. Some have died, others are wounded, missing, or imprisoned. Many have fled abroad.

Those who continue to work do so under constant uncertainty: They might be carrying out an assignment today and be drafted into military service tomorrow. For businesses, this means immense risks and staff shortages; for society, it means a continual loss of knowledge, experience, and continuity. Demand for skilled crafts services far exceeds available capacity—both in terms of personnel and time.

In this context, vocational education takes on special importance. It is a prerequisite for keeping the economy functioning. If homes are to have electricity, water, and heat, people are needed who know how to ensure that. In Ukraine today every qualified skilled craftsperson is literally worth their weight in gold. And vocational education plays a central role in this context.

Yuliia Krasnovyd
Project Manager of the VET Partnership
Chamber of Skilled Crafts Dresden

Apprentices of the partner school in Lwiw during a workshop in Dresden, May 2024. Picture: Chamber of Skilled Crafts Dresden

How did the vocational education partnership between the Chamber of Skilled Crafts Dresden (HWK) and vocational training institutions in Western Ukraine come about, and what are its goals?

The vocational education partnership between the Chamber of Skilled Crafts Dresden and vocational institutions in Ukraine was initiated at the end of 2021 by the Chamber of Skilled Crafts Dresden together with three Ukrainian education institutions. The project launch coincided almost exactly with the outbreak of war.

The partnership has had a clear goal from the start: to make vocational education in Ukraine more practice-oriented, modern, and aligned with the needs of the economy.

We want young people in Ukraine to see real future prospects in vocational education in the skilled crafts. We want to empower and support teachers. We want companies to see cooperation with educational institutions not as an obligation, but as a resource. And we want the Ukrainian vocational education system—while maintaining its autonomy—to learn from and benefit from the best European approaches.

Group photo of participants in the detailed planning workshop for the second project phase. Pictured: Representatives of the four Ukrainian partner schools, the Ukrainian Ministry of Education, the Dresden Chamber of Skilled Crafts, and sequa GmbH. Dresden, February 2025 Picture: Chamber of Skilled Crafts Dresden

What are the most important outcomes of the project so far?

Through the development of dynamic exchange formats, the involvement of German experts, teacher training, career orientation promotion, and support for Ukrainian school teams, vocational education and the economy in Ukraine have grown closer.

For example, cooperation between vocational schools, businesses, and other stakeholders has been systematized and expanded in the partner regions. A major challenge was convincing Ukrainian entrepreneurs to participate in project activities. Due to the acute skilled labor shortage, many simply cannot afford to be away from work for even a day. Involving the business sector was thus one of the greatest challenges so far.

At the same time, the flight and mobilization of many skilled workers have led businesses to once again look toward vocational training institutions—in the hope of finding new professionals there.

This has fostered growing mutual respect and a strong willingness to work together closely and goal-oriented. They listened with interest to the ideas presented by invited experts—about involving businesses in curriculum development, the role of in-company trainers, and equal partnerships between schools and the economy.

For the educational institutions, this was also a valuable impulse. Today, they formulate their development plans more clearly, work actively to update curricula, and explore new forms of cooperation with businesses. We have accompanied them—through training, micro-projects, and simply by being a consistent partner at eye level, listening, sharing ideas, and helping to implement concrete initiatives.

And last but not least: there is more self-confidence. Teams now show more initiative, more courage to try new things, and a stronger sense of purpose in their work. Even if hard to measure—that is, for me personally, the most valuable success of the project.

What has your experience been with the SCIVET instruments in the project?

Throughout the project, we’ve applied many elements of the instruments recommended by SCIVET:

• Together with partner institutions, we formulated clear goals—both content-related and organizational—in our proposal. These are regularly reviewed and adjusted. The logic of the SCIVET goal system is well anchored in our work.
• We carry out impact-oriented monitoring: regularly analyzing developments at partner institutions, reviewing progress reports, conducting feedback discussions, and adapting our measures accordingly.
• In capacity development, we work systematically: training programs have conveyed competences in learning-field oriented teaching and active business engagement. Our partners also developed or revised career orientation concepts—with input from the German system.
• Cooperation management is another central pillar: we are in regular contact with our Ukrainian partners, jointly coordinate activities, and plan many events together. Our partners are not just participants—they co-design and co-host many workshops.
• We also place great importance on public relations and dissemination: we document our activities internally and externally and aim to anchor our project approaches sustainably.

What challenges have you already overcome, and which ones are still ahead?

One of the greatest challenges has been the difference in mentality and the completely different realities of life. Germany and Ukraine currently live in two very different worlds. Understandably, our Ukrainian partners often struggle to comprehend how the German system functions—how decisions are made, how administration is organized, or what deadlines and formal requirements apply. Patience, clear communication, and ongoing dialogue are crucial here.

German experts, on the other hand, sometimes propose ideas that are either incompatible with Ukrainian law or difficult to implement. In a stable country, many things are taken for granted. But Ukraine is at war. Many people live in constant uncertainty, on the edge of mere survival. In this reality, what counts are solutions that show immediate impact. Reconciling these two planning horizons is one of the most delicate tasks in our cooperation.

Another central challenge is business involvement. Due to the acute shortage of skilled workers, many companies operate at their limits—every hour counts, every job brings income. Participating in workshops or consultations often feels like a luxury they can’t afford. Yet this same shortage has also increased employer interest in vocational training institutions—where they might find potential staff. This has created new touchpoints.

And of course, unpredictability is constant: air-raid alarms, power outages, shelling—all of this requires maximum flexibility, patience, and mutual respect.

Demonstration of an exoskeleton and how modern robotics can be used in skilled crafts. Dresden, njumii – the educational center for skilled crafts in Dresden, July 1, 2022. Image: Chamber of Skilled Crafts Dresden

Environmental protection and sustainable development are important topics for the skilled crafts. What role do these play in the partnership?

Sustainability is especially relevant in the field of energy efficiency.

Through the project, Ukrainian partners—particularly in Lviv and Ternopil—have revised curricula and introduced new modules on energy-efficient technologies, including heat pumps. Instruction based on this material is planned to begin in September 2025, once the adapted teaching materials—based on German examples—are completed.

Energy-efficient technology and sustainable resource use are recurring themes in seminars, workshops, and training sessions held as part of the project.

A significant step was equipping workshops with modern devices. In the first project phase, new energy-efficient equipment like water heaters, air conditioning units, and modern plumbing modules were purchased and installed.

Apprentices in the profession sanitaryinstallastions in working clothes financed by the project in front of a training wall also financed by the project.  Picture: Chamber of Skilled Crafts Dresden

Who are your key supporters in the project?

The main supporters are:

• BMZ (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development), the funding body
• sequa gGmbH, the project coordinator and program authority

Implementation partners in the “Vocational Education Partnership between the Chamber of Skilled Crafts Dresden and Vocational Training Institutions in Western Ukraine” include the vocational schools we closely cooperate with.

In the first phase, the following institutions participated:

• Interregional State Higher Vocational School for Automotive Engineering and Construction, Lviv
• State Higher Vocational School for Hospitality and Trade, Ternopil
• Technical College NUVGP, Rivne

In the second phase, two schools (Lviv and Ternopil) remained, and two new ones joined:

• State Higher Vocational School for Construction and Architecture, Lutsk
• State Higher Vocational School for Railway Engineering, Zdolbuniv (Rivne region)

We also cooperate with the regional chambers of commerce and industry in Lviv, Ternopil, and Rivne.

A cooperation agreement was signed with the Ukrainian Ministry of Education.

What impact has the war had on the project, and how are you dealing with it?

The war imposes very concrete burdens that challenge our work daily:

• Sudden interruptions of online meetings: When air raid sirens go off, everyone heads to shelters—meetings end abruptly. The duration is uncertain—from minutes to hours.
• Psychological shock moments: One project meeting took place just two hours after a missile strike only 500 meters from the school grounds. In such moments, discussing education reform is nearly impossible.
• Unplannable schedules: Two-week lead times are often unrealistic. Partners confirm attendance two or three days ahead—and even then, not everyone may make it. Even carefully planned logistics often crumble.

These circumstances demand maximum adaptability. We stick to a fixed structure (regular meetings, training, study trips) but allow flexible timeframes. This balance between structure and flexibility often gives our Ukrainian partners the only stable orientation—not out of luxury, but necessity in wartime.

How could the current project develop further, and what might future collaboration look like?

We see several development opportunities:

• Strengthening the institutional dimension: Some tools developed in the project have scaling potential. One example is the new job description for a “Head of Career Center,” which has already drawn interest from other institutions and ministry representatives. If officially adopted, it could serve as a model across Ukraine.
• Integrating current topics into curricula: We’re working on practice-oriented materials for heat pumps and energy efficiency. Our goal is to create high-quality resources that can be officially recommended by the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and widely implemented.
• Supporting career guidance: We fund career orientation activities at four partner institutions, based on their own concepts and action plans. They adapt ideas to local contexts and create functioning formats—such as workshops and company visits—that can continue beyond the project.
• Systematic business cooperation: Building sustainable partnerships between education and business is challenging but essential. Some companies that were first time involved in VET during our project are already staying committed. We want to strengthen this area—with dual education models and new cooperation formats.
• Horizontal networking: Joint travel, material development, and peer learning among Ukrainian institutions have proved invaluable. While our project is too small to institutionalize this exchange, we aim to initiate and support it in simple ways.
• Enhancing international engagement: International exchange—especially for teachers—would be highly beneficial. Even short visits to foreign schools are motivating, broaden horizons, and foster modern teaching practices.

Participants of a training for hte position “Head of Career Centre”. Tenropil, April 2025. Picture: Chamber of Skilled Crafts Dresden

What are the interests of the Chamber of Skilled Crafts Dresden in this collaboration? What do you gain from it?

The Chamber of Skilled Crafts Dresden sees its involvement as part of its social and educational mission.

Our interests fall into three categories:

1. Contribution to international solidarity: As a Chamber of skilled crafts with strong networks and expertise in vocational education, we feel obliged to share our experience—especially with partners facing extreme challenges. This cooperation is a way to offer practical support and strengthen educational structures.
2. Fostering intercultural understanding: Working closely with Ukrainian partners gives us and our staff new perspectives. We learn about different education systems, resilience during crises, and alternative problem-solving approaches—insights that enrich our own work.
3. Long-term skilled worker prospects: Young people gain opportunities. Contacts are established, qualification standards emerge.

Last but not least, the partnership reflects our identity as a modern, open-minded Chamber actively engaged in European and international education processes. For us, this project is a living example of a bridge—between countries, people, and education systems.