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🌐The Confederation of Builders of Ukraine took part in the forum "Building professional engineering: best practices", which took place on May 2, 2024.

The forum was organized by the project "Public-private partnership for the improvement of professional education in Ukraine" (EdUP), which is implemented by the Swiss foundation for technical cooperation in the development of Swisscontact (as part of the Install Fest Ukraine 2024 exhibition).

👤 Oleksandr Chervak, Executive director of the CBU, spoke as part of the first panel. Dmytro Zavgorodnii, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine for digital development, digital transformations and digitalization, and Ivan Pykus, Head of the Department of Education and Science of the Lviv Regional Military Department also took part in the discussion. 

📜 During the discussion, Dmytro Zavgorodnii presented the programs being developed by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine to improve cooperation between vocational schools and business. He emphasized the importance of such cooperation, in particular, for the creation of workshops. According to Dmytro Zavgorodnii, for an effective result, students should learn to use the technology they will encounter at the workplace. The special importance of the internship is to see how all the processes take place in practice.

📊 Oleksandr Chervak presented the specialists needs for the construction industry and the challenges faced by the business. He noted that today the share of construction in Ukraine's GDP is 2%, in 2022 it has drop to 1%, while before the full-scale invasion this figure was 3%. At the same time, there is significant potential for the physical volume of gross added value in Ukrainian construction. In 2023, it grew by 25% relative to 2022, and according to forecasts in 2024, this indicator will be equal to 30% with the potential to increase to 50% in 2025.

The lack of specialists in the construction industry is a significant problem. According to the results of a survey of construction companies conducted in November 2023, this issue is among the top 3 biggest problems faced by representatives of the construction industry. After the full-scale military invasion of the russian federation on the territory of Ukraine, the loss of labor potential is already estimated at more than 30%.

💬 "The CBU pays considerable attention to this issue. We hold meetings with trade unions, international partners, etc. in order to improve the situation with the availability of specialists and to increase their qualification level. Among the main issues that need to be resolved are the issue of conducting special trainings and increasing educational programs in educational institutions, rehabilitation programs for war victims, and the development of a migration policy for involvement in construction work in Ukraine," Oleksandr Chervak noted.

Separately, he touched on the topic of creating special ID cards for construction workers. This approach will allow to track the entire experience of a particular specialist - from obtaining a professional education to future career growth and continuous professional development. It would also provide social protection for workers, and it would make it easier for businesses to find qualified personnel.

🔍As part of preparations for the forum, the Confederation of Builders of Ukraine conducted a survey on the shortage of specialists in the construction industry. The construction companies that participated provided a significant list of professions that are most in short supply. Therefore, the shortage of drivers was most often noted. There is also a shortage of project managers, foremen, installers, monolith builders, facade workers, masons, electricians, technologists, loaders, armature fitters, turners, machine tool operators, engineers, laboratory assistants, storekeepers, stampers, locksmiths, masons, welders, plasterers, tilers, crane operators etc.

One of the frequent ways of compensating for the lack of specialists in professions in which men are more likely to work is to attract more women to such positions. 90% of companies answered that the share of women working in the company has increased over the past two years. In half of the cases, women began to be recruited to positions previously held by men.

💼Each company uses its own approach to compensation for scarce professions. Most often, responsibilities are transferred to another employee. Another common way is to replace construction crews. There are also cases when the company provides retraining or advanced training of an employee. Sometimes there is a combination of several different methods.

informed about the participation of the СBU in the process of updating the Classifier of Professions 003:2010, namely about the development of proposals for the Classifier. After all, with the development of technologies, the emergence of new approaches to construction, the changing realities of today, there is a need to make changes so that the Classifier remains relevant and complete.

💬 "The issue of the lack of labor resources is also raised at the international level. We are glad that such initiatives as SkillsAlliance for Ukraine, which is being prepared by the The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, are emerging," Oleksandr Chervak said. The launch of the initiative will be discussed during the Ukraine Recovery Conference on June 11-12 in Berlin.

🏛️ Ivan Pykus also took part in the discussion, who presented the educational and practical centers of professional education institutions, which were the result of cooperation between the state, local authorities and business. Thus, the construction industry accounts for the largest share of educational and practical centers. In 2024, 68% of all funding was allocated from the state budget, and 32% was provided by the local budget, partners and own funds.

Lack of workers is a problem that almost every active construction company has faced. Therefore, it is necessary to attract more young people to the industry and train specialists who will rebuild Ukraine.

WE WILL WIN AND REBUILD EVERYTHING! 💪

TOGETHER TO VICTORY! 

GLORY TO UKRAINE! 💙💛