Ukraine has been working with the European Training Foundation (ETF) on the Torino Process since 2010, but it is in the latest round 2014-16 that it has taken its biggest step – bringing it to the country’s 25 regions. This coincides with a new policy on devolved financial and management responsibility for VET.

Torino Process Coordinator Viktoria Karbysheva recalls how the innovative regionalised approach to using the Torino Process came about.

‘We had conducted a pilot in five regions in 2012 and people were so enthusiastic and engaged that I asked Margareta Nikolovska, ETF Country Manager for Ukraine, if we could take it nationwide, across the regions.’

‘After that I forgot about it for a year until, one day, Margareta told me we could do it. It was fantastic news!”

Viktoria Karbysheva works closely with Kateryna Miroshnychenko – deputy heads of the VET department at the Ukrainian Ministry.

The impact using the Torino Process had on those who had been through the pilot scheme was evident in their better, deeper understanding, Miroshnychenko says.

Now, with the regional reports published ahead of the full national report, and the devolution process top of the parliamentary agenda, VET is in the limelight in Ukraine.

‘VET used to be like that old joke – a man goes to the doctor and says: ‘People keep ignoring me’. The doctor looks up and says: ‘Next!’ But that is not longer the case,’ says Miroshnychenko with a ’smile.

In a nutshell, the Torino Process brings ‘system, partnership and strategy’ to VET reform, she adds.

‘We can analyse the system, working in partnership with a network of social, business and institutional stakeholders – which in the past we lacked. We share experience and create strategy.’

Although some business partners fear that devolution may weaken the ability of VET to deliver the trained workers Ukrainian industry needs, Miroshnychenko believes that is an incentive to ensure closer cooperation between VET schools and regional labour markets.

Ukraine will share its experience at the ‘Changing Skills for a Changing World ‘ Torino Process international conference in Turin, June 7-8.