The Vocational Education and Training project is part of the wider EU4Skills programme, funded primarily by the EU with complementarity investments by Germany, Poland, Finland and Estonia, and is being implemented by ETF, BMZ, GIZ and KfW across the various programme component initiatives.

The objective of the assignment is to support the Ministry of Education and Science (MOES) to prepare capital investments to establish Centres of Excellence coherent with the definition and subsequently support MOES and the contracting authorities at the level of the VET schools to implement successfully the EIB financed Vocational Education and Training in Ukraine project (the Project). Centres of Excellence are defined as larger, modern VET institutions offering VET qualifications at secondary level in sectors of high economic importance to the particular region. They are part of the Ukrainian government’s wider efforts to reform the Ukrainian VET system in view of making it more efficient, attractive to new students and aligned with labour market needs.

The target beneficiaries are the nominated VET centres’ professors and administrative staff and students generally aged between 14 and 18 years old covering the pre-secondary and post-secondary vocational education and training levels in Ukraine. Moreover, adult learners are expected to benefit especially those looking to re-train into sectors of the labour market from their previous employment or training. In addition to the future students of the education facilities, their parents, families and the immediate local community around these facilities will be key stakeholders in the development of the education facilities.

The regions in which the EIB was requested to finance the (re)construction and establishment of a CoE were Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv City, Odesa, Ternopil, Volyn and Zakarpattia.