“Photo: dcz.gov.ua Higher education in modern Ukrainian society, unfortunately, is considered not as a global value and a condition of competitive strategic development of the country, but as an opportunity to obtain at least some diploma, simply “to be”. Not surprisingly, according to the National Institute for Strategic Studies, almost half of Ukrainian graduates of higher education institutions replenish the ranks of the unemployed or need retraining. Why among […]”, – WRITE: Businessua.com.ua

Photo: dcz.gov.ua
Higher education in modern Ukrainian society, unfortunately, is considered not as a global value and the condition of competitive strategic development of the country, but as an opportunity to obtain at least some diploma, simply “to be”. Not surprisingly, according to the National Institute for Strategic Studies, almost half of Ukrainian graduates of higher education institutions replenish the ranks of the unemployed or need retraining.
Why do technical specialties use among Ukrainian entrants It is extremely low in demand, whether there is the fault of employers and who will need the domestic labor market in four to five years? These and other questions are correspondent Briefly about discussed with Vitaly Mikhailov, director of the consulting company “Mikhailov and partners”.
“Most universities graduates will not work by the chosen profession” – Mr. Vitaliy, on August 1, the submission of applications to higher education institutions ended, and some experts have already published the first results on their pages. The five specialties that collected the most applications in 2025 look like: management, psychology, philology, law, marketing. But do so many managers, psychologists, philologists need the Ukrainian market?
Vitaliy Mikhailov believes that labor deficiency in our country will only grow. Photo: personal archive
– I believe that in the future our country will need marketers, lawyers, and especially psychologists. After this war, psychologists will be needed for children and adults for many years, people are injured for life.
But the problem is not so much in the fact that some specialties of Ukraine are needed, but no, but not, that most of the graduates of universities, unfortunately, did not work, do not work and will never work in the chosen profession.
– How did this “style of education” develop and can it be considered purely Ukrainian?
-First, we have very popular dynasties-legal, medical, etc. If Dad is a prosecutor, let his son be a prosecutor.
Secondly, applicants often have no idea which university to choose, and parents are always ready to give advice such as “artist is not a profession” or “All lawyers are well in life, so let’s go on legal.”
Instead, European students from grades 5-6 have the opportunity to choose subjects at school. There are mandatory subjects – as mathematics, language, but are optional. And – it’s hard to believe – if the child does not know and does not want to know what chemistry is, she may never face it at all. And it can try to learn half a year or a year and then continue, or give up if it does not go. Most students already know what they want, plus the work of consultants, specialists in vocational guidance.
We have, if the child is not given physics, there can be only one advice: to pull up physics! But there is a more logical solution: not to spend the strength to pull up the weakest, but to develop what the child is the strongest. Unfortunately, Ukrainian education has not come to this yet.
-In your opinion, who will need the Ukrainian market in 4-5 years, when today’s entrants will enter the labor market?
– This trend has begun for a long time: the labor market is now, and in five years will need technical specialists. We lack engineers, but there is nothing surprising. The exact sciences are given fewer people, so it is, so to speak, natural selection.
It is also worth saying that everything changes very quickly. In recent years, huge adjustments have made a full-scale war in the Ukrainian labor market, because the militants of the sphere need not only the military, but also many new technical specialists, which we did not have before the war-at least in such a number.
“For youth an engineer is not cool” – This year, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has popularized natural and engineering specialties. In particular, the state order for electrical engineering (2500 places for full -time), construction and civilian engineering (2800 seats), mechanical engineering (2200), computer sciences (3400), future engineers increased scholarships and so on. But this did not help, which allows to conclude: the problem does not arise at the stage of entry into the university, but is formed much earlier.
– In Ukraine, there is no state program of popularization of professions, we do not promote that, say, engineer is cool and prestigious. The technical professions are now popular except for the IT field: for young people, work, such as Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc., looks very attractive. Not at all that at a factory or power plant.
Instead, the “lawyer” sounds cool in any situation, because it is lawyers who become lawyers, prosecutors, go to work in NABU or SAP.
– 30 years ago, our universities produced solid engineers, and now – who is not a psychologist, that marketer. Maybe something is wrong with secondary education?
– There are several important factors.
First, 30 years ago there were many more production enterprises, and they all needed engineers, and a corresponding state order was formed. There is also a state order now, but less. In addition, we now have many private universities who just make money. And if legal education is sold – they will create at least 10 groups, and if the engineering is not sold, there will be none.
Secondly, since 2020 we have many students in distance learning, and since 2022 many of those who have gone abroad are learning in two languages. And this does not definitely contribute to the quality of education, especially technical. Because if a student missed something from literature or geography, he will have a space on this topic. But if you miss several topics in mathematics or physics, it will be very difficult to catch up.
And finally, the popularity of IT professional has led to a certain outflow from engineering specialties. That is, most of the entrants who have no problems with the technical sciences and theoretically could go to engineers, become programmers. High salaries, prestige, the ability to work remotely – all these are great benefits that most businesses are difficult to compete.
– It is clear for domestic reasons, and are there any global causes of low mathematical abilities in young people? Is it possible to say that as a result of technological progress every subsequent generation in the bulk is less moving Ive and more lazy?
– Earlier they said: why train orally if you can count everything in a column? Then – why in a column when there is a calculator? Then even a separate calculator became unnecessary-now it is built into any smartphone. But, as we can see, the inability to count is not limited.
A few years ago, it seemed to teachers that the greatest evil for learning was the Internet. Like, earlier, students were looking for information in libraries, wrote research and works themselves, and now it is enough to use the search in Google and simply rewrite ready work.
But now there is nothing to rewrite. There is nothing needed at all. It is enough to take a picture of the task and send the photo to Chatgpt – let it work. And AI does not only give the right answer, but also a solution that you can not even look, but simply copy and send the teacher. This is the level of education.
“Employers have to take work hands that are ready to work” – I saw interesting statistics: the unemployment rate of university graduates in all EU countries is lower than the general unemployment rate in the economy. For example, in the Czech Republic and Poland, unemployment of university graduates is 1.4% and the total level is 2.6% and 2.9%, respectively. Instead, almost half of the graduates with higher education in Ukraine replenish the benches of the unemployed or need retraining.
– In general, it is much easier for a person to find a job without education: vacancies of a loader or driver can be found 10 minutes from home, they are easier to “entrance” and “exit”, a large turnover of staff. Compare with the chief accountant or some narrow specialist – there are little vacancies, the selection is more difficult, there is almost no rotation.
The Ukrainian statistics of unemployment of people with higher education again tells us the same thing: education is detached from the real economy, the educational sphere and requests of the labor market are inconsistent. Entrants often choose training not by calling, but because the parents decided so, because the competition was small because it was cheaper to learn. As a result, the young specialist knows nothing after the university, he does not know anything, but has a diploma.
– Indeed, many Ukrainians are educated “to be” without realizing why it is needed. The main thing is the “crust”, and then you can work with anyone, because higher education “in the pocket”. But do employers do not contribute to such attitude to education? If it is very important in Europe and the US that a person is working in a specialty, then in Ukraine, as before, they are hardly not paying attention.
– Employers are often given this opinion: they teach unclear in universities, so young professionals can just forget everything, because still in business and life everything is not true. Therefore, for the employer, a diploma is often not a certificate from the professionalism of a specialist, but rather an indicator that a person is generally able to learn and learn.
At the same time, business and economy are detached from higher education, many teachers studied for old textbooks, teaching subjects formally and have never been practitioners.
By the way, education is lagging behind a real life for several years not only in Ukraine, but around the world. Now everything is developing very dynamically, and universities live in their conservative life, given how they are convenient and how they are funded.
– There are other distortions from employers. In the 90’s there was such a joke that everyone wants a cleaner with higher education. Now they want cleaners after the master’s degree.
– If so, it will not last long. In Ukraine, there is now another labor shortage, so employers can advise working hands that have not gone anywhere and are ready to work. Unfortunately, this deficit will continue to grow due to the peculiarities of the education system, destructive war and disappointing demography.
Source: kp.ua
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