Ukraine
BIBB works with Ukraine on the basis of a memorandum of understanding signed by the German and Ukrainian governments in 1993 and on the basis of a directive from the former Federal Ministry of Education and Science. Since Ukraine does not have a vocational training institute, BIBB's points of contact are the Ministry of Education (and the Department for Vocational Education and Training in particular) and the Institute for Vocational Training Pedagogy and Psychology at the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine. The German government's TRANSFORM Programme was set up to assist the countries of Central and Eastern Europe reorganize their systems in the direction of democracy and a market economy. This programme makes it possible to provide comprehensive consultancy services with regard to system development and conduct exchanges of information and joint vocational training research. Numerous pilot projects were developed and implemented in collaboration with Ukraine's Ministry of Education to supplement the consultancy services. Curricula for new or updated vocational training schemes were developed, tested and, if necessary, modified. Continuing training was provided for instruction personnel. Assistance with equipment and materials was provided. The Observatory of the European Training Foundation (ETF) took up office at one of the pilot schools in 1997. Relations with the Observatory were also extremely good. The pilot projects were continued even after the end of the funding period in 2001. Some of them are now finding nationwide application.
Building on the consultancy services provided through the TRANSFORM Programme, BIBB participated - as a member of an international consortium - in an EU TACIS project aimed at strengthening regional vocational education and training management in Ukraine. This four-year project was launched in 2005. The lead management of this consortium was assigned to InWEnt Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung gGmbH. Other members were the Brussels-based Belgian consultancy Institut Belge de Formation (IBF) and the French chamber Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie Sud Alsace of Mulhouse. The project consists of four interrelated components:
- Strategy for decentralizing vocational education policy, control and administration; development of an internet platform that serves as a management information system
- National financing and quality assurance mechanisms
- School-based innovation in vocational education and training
- Vocational training in the agricultural sector; adjusting vocational training to the needs of the labour market while taking the permeability of vocational training and university-level education into account and using national qualifications frameworks that are to be developed in this connection.
Following a period of project consolidation, work began on these project activities:
Procedures used in Germany for the early identification of skill requirements - which are presented at http://www.frequenz.net/ - are being examined to determine whether they can be applied in Ukraine. This is being done in connection with the development of a management information system that is to support greater decentralization in vocational training policy, control and administration.
The work of the Financing and Quality Assurance Mechanisms component will start with analyses of the current Ukrainian system. As a second step, models that were developed in Germany for ensuring quality assurance in VET will be studied to determine their suitability to conditions in Ukraine.
The School-based Innovations component will also enable a further dissemination of the findings from the pilot projects conducted through the TRANSFORM Programme.
The development of a national qualifications framework for the agricultural sector is being supported through collaboration with other projects (some of which are being conducted by the European Training Foundation (ETF)) and by BIBB's posting of international experts to Ukraine on short-term assignments.
