Reskilling Ukraine rolled out its first training program for women, OnTrack, in 2023. Participants can obtain commercial licenses to drive trucks and buses, operate construction equipment, work as mechanics, or install solar plants. Funding comes mainly from the Swedish government, and the organization is an offshoot of Beredskapslyftet<\/a>, a larger Swedish nonprofit.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter understanding and doing some research in Ukraine, we saw that there is a huge demand for new professionals within some industries,\u201d said Viktoria Posieva, the organization\u2019s media contact.<\/p>\n Transportation and logistics are such industries \u2013 impacted both by the war and by the legacy of longstanding gender-based legislation and stereotypes. Until 2017, a Soviet-era mandate barred women from around 450 professions in Ukraine. While the World Bank and other partners have worked on \u201clifting legal barriers\u201d especially in \u201csectors that had the highest number of bans, such as transport and logistics,\u201d women still face \u201csoft\u201d barriers to entry into these fields, according<\/a> to the bank.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had some driving schools that said, \u2018Okay, this [initiative] is not for us because we don\u2019t think women should drive big trucks,\u2019 \u201d Posieva said. \u201cBut when it comes to now it\u2019s all smooth because people see the results.\u201d<\/p>\n More than 100 women trained by the organization now work as truck or bus drivers, embarking on expeditions through Ukraine and surrounding countries.<\/p>\n \u201cThe average age of our graduates is 42, so it\u2019s middle-aged women,\u201d said Posieva. \u201cTypically, they are married. They have, for example, a husband serving in the military, or they served in the military before. They\u2019re internally displaced. So they see this as an opportunity to be on their own, to be on the road, to do something important for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n The jobs often come with more financial security than other work. \u201cIn Ukraine, you can earn more as a truck driver than a school teacher,\u201d Posieva added.<\/p>\n For some, the program offers clarity, even if the road leads elsewhere. \u201cSometimes we have women who have high motivations and they go into the [training] and they understand, \u2018No, it\u2019s not for me.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Ukraine\u2019s freight transportation market is short around 40,000 drivers<\/a>, leaving 30% of trucks idle, Deputy Minister of Communities and Territories Serhiy Derkach told Ukrinform in July. The passenger transportation market is similarly facing<\/a> a shortage of 6,000 workers.<\/p>\n The ministry\u2019s own response to this issue was a project called She Drives, training women for careers in either passenger transportation or trucking with courses to obtain class D or class C\/CE licenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n The training course for trucking faced an uncertain fate in January 2025 when USAID funding was cut. About 20% of the 100 participants were left stranded with incomplete training, according to the She Drives team. The initiative was reinstated<\/a> after United Nations Women stepped in and reallocated funds along with international partners, and the women were able to obtain licenses.<\/p>\n As of August 2025, 11 graduates are employed in the passenger transport sector, an industry that has only around 1% women employees to date, according to the She Drives team. The program now offers Code 95 Certification, allowing for service throughout the EU in addition to Ukraine.\u00a0<\/p>\n Expanding for Veterans<\/strong><\/p>\n In 2025, Reskilling Ukraine expanded with the launch of Unit 6.0, a new program dedicated to veterans. It currently offers two training courses: one to become a solar plant installer and another to become a career counselor for fellow veterans.\u00a0<\/p>\n The veterans\u2019 course teaches the foundations for a career helping former soldiers reenter the job market: expertise in analyzing the labor market, working with clients, and providing advice on building a resume. The subsequent practical component allows each student to gain experience through an internship at a company.<\/p>\n Though still in its early stages, the initiative has already made an impact, says the organization.<\/p>\n Posieva shared the story of a former English teacher from western Ukraine who joined the military after the full-scale invasion. \u201cWhen he came back, he went through our education [program] to become a career consultant after he was advised by his wife,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Following the training, he completed an internship at an international electronics company with operations in Ukraine.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter this internship, he got a job as a chief veteran\u2019s officer in a factory. It was a huge success for us.\u201d Those in such positions help private companies find talent returning from the front lines, and provide a support network for veterans within the company.<\/p>\n That helps veterans transition to civilian careers, but are also valuable for another reason. \u201cVeteran\u2019s officers can connect and can talk to those actively serving in the military so [the soldiers] can feel connected to their previous workplaces and colleagues,\u201d said Posieva. So far, 36 veterans have undergone training with Unit 6.0.<\/p>\n A government poll of veterans found that just 2.9% of Ukraine\u2019s 1.2 to 1.3 million veterans have received any form of reskilling support<\/a>, according to Oleg Shymanski, Ukraine\u2019s deputy minister for veteran affairs. \u201cWe need to work with veterans while they are still in the military,\u201d Shymanski said at July\u2019s 2025 Ukraine Recovery Conference. Unit 6.0\u2019s graduates will be among those helping to build channels for veterans to find work after service.<\/p>\n Reskilling Ukraine\u2019s in-person training courses are held both in Kyiv and the Ternopil region in western Ukraine. But for many, the capital is no longer a viable option. \u201cA lot of candidates say, \u2018Can I please travel to the western part?\u2019 because they know that the western part is safer than Kyiv,\u201d said Posieva. \u201cAnd now, sometimes candidates just refuse to go to Kyiv, because of heavy bombing every week.\u201d<\/p>\n To navigate these risks, the organization has implemented safety protocols for when the air raid sirens sound, although as Posieva noted, \u201cI\u2019m Ukrainian myself, and we all know what to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Big Picture<\/strong><\/p>\n Tackling endemic corruption and embracing a private-sector-led economy are key for Ukraine to catch up to EU members in economic performance, according to World Bank Managing Director of Operations Anna Bjerde<\/a>, speaking, like Shymanski at the 2025 Ukraine Recovery Conference.<\/p>\n Bjerde stressed that major challenges will need to be overcome along this road. \u201cFirst is the destruction of capital and acute labor shortages that constrain growth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The lack of both skilled and unskilled labor has hobbled the economy since independence in 1991 as millions<\/a> have emigrated either seasonally or permanently for jobs, many going to Central Europe or further west. The war multiplied these losses many times over: 3.7 million internally displaced people, 6.9 million abroad, and around 1 million active military personnel, according to the International Organization for Migration<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Deputy Prime Minister Oleksei Chernishov has also underscored<\/a> the human side of this challenge: \u201chuman capital is the primary source that activates both financial and technological capital, especially in times of crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n Reskilling Ukraine and She Drives are working beside other employment efforts from the EU<\/a>; the United Nations Development Program<\/a>; and International Organization for Migration<\/a>. The mission is about more than filling vacancies \u2013 it\u2019s about offering purpose and resilience for the individuals who are rebuilding Ukraine amid war.\u00a0<\/p>\n William Kirkiles <\/strong>was an intern this summer at Transitions. He is entering his sophomore year at Brown University.\u00a0<\/p>\n Photos, except top image, are courtesy of Reskilling Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How Ukraine and its partners are tackling a human-capital crisis. \u201cThe full-scale invasion has closed the Ukrainian sky.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[1700,2000,299,897,23762,142841,142842,7661,16651,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-416635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-economy","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-jobs","12":"tag-logistics","13":"tag-nonprofits","14":"tag-retraining","15":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","16":"tag-transportation","17":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Liudmyla.png\")
<\/a>Reskilling Ukraine offers training to Ukrainians like Liudmyla.
\nGetting the Wheels Turning<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4-3.png\")
<\/a>An OnTrack trainee practices forklift operation.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DSC1087.png\")
<\/a>Veterans gather for a training session at Unit 6.0.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Untitled-1-1.png\")
<\/a>OnTrack\u2019s graduates will be helping rebuild Ukraine\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n