HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT
4’2023

Mariia Agafonova
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3439-5680

EUROPEAN YEAR OF SKILLS: A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY FOR UKRAINE IN TIMES OF WAR

Full text (pdf)
Language: Ukrainian
Abstract. The purpose of the article is to outline the opportunities and prospects offered by the European Year of Skills, launched by the European Parliament in May 2023, for both Ukrainian residents and forced Ukrainian migrants. The article provides an overview of a wide range of projects that are being implemented within the framework of the European Year of Skills both in the European Union and in Ukraine. The author analyzes the level of skills, PISA educational achievements, and the share of STEM education graduates in Ukraine among various countries based on UNCTAD statistics and the Global Innovation Index, whose evaluation criteria refer to the global databases of UNESCO and the OECD. The analysis of the level of skills showed that in 2023 Ukraine ranks 42nd among 166 countries, thereby overtaking a number of countries in the Central and Eastern Europe region, namely Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. According to the results of the PISA-2018 educational surveys in reading, science and mathematics, Ukraine ranked 40th among 132 countries, leaving Bulgaria and Romania behind. The share of graduates of Ukrainian higher education institutions in STEM education in 2020 was 25,7% (Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Latvia, Italy and even the United States are far behind Ukraine), which gives some optimism about the European future of our country. In the context of the new reality, the article emphasizes the importance of popularizing STEM education in developing countries, including Ukraine. At the same time, the article outlines the requirements imposed by the European Year of Skills on Ukrainian employers, which are aimed at creating competitive European labor market conditions. This, in synergy with the accelerated industrialization of the country, especially against the background of the implementation of military-tech (high-tech weapons industry), will be a key dominant of the post-war recovery of the national economy.
Keywords: European Year of Skills, PISA educational research, STEM education, post-war reconstruction of Ukraine.
https://doi.org/10.32987/2617-8532-2023-4-116-127

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