Strengthening vocational qualifications to support Ukraine’s reconstruction and long‑term recovery

2. Key challenges of the VET qualification system

Vocational qualification systems face growing pressure to adapt to rapidly changing skill needs while preserving stability, transparency and trust. This section examines four interrelated challenges that are particularly salient in Ukraine: aligning qualifications with evolving labour-market needs and international recognition requirements; integrating micro-qualifications coherently; ensuring credible and comparable assessment; and sustaining meaningful employer engagement.

2.1. Aligning qualifications with evolving skill needs and international recognition

Vocational qualifications are expected to translate labour-market needs into recognised credentials that employers, learners and institutions can understand and trust. Across countries, qualification systems often struggle to keep pace with rapidly changing skill demand because they must balance responsiveness with stability, quality assurance and national coherence (OECD, 2023[1]). This challenge is particularly salient in Ukraine, where reconstruction, displacement, labour shortages and EU accession create simultaneous pressures on the qualification system.

Ukraine has established important foundations for a demand-oriented qualification system. These include the NQF, occupational standards, dedicated governance arrangements and the institutional role of the NQA. The country also has access to several sources of labour-market information, including employer surveys, vacancy data, sectoral inputs and qualitative research conducted since the start of the war. However, the main challenge is not only to identify emerging skill needs, but to translate these signals into timely and proportionate qualification updates. According to the NQA, introducing or updating a vocational qualification commonly takes between 12 and 24 months, even when labour-market needs are well documented.

This creates a mismatch between the pace of labour-market change and the procedures used to update qualifications. The issue is particularly visible in reconstruction-related sectors such as construction, infrastructure, energy, utilities, transport and logistics, where labour demand is evolving rapidly and unevenly. In 2024, around 63% of companies reported difficulties in recruiting staff, with particularly acute shortages in occupations relevant to reconstruction activities, including installers, technicians, electricians, operators and other technical occupations (Kyiv School of Economics, 2025[4]). Employers increasingly need workers who can perform clearly defined tasks, operate specific equipment, comply with updated safety requirements and adapt to changing site conditions (Kyiv School of Economics, 2024[15]). These needs often concern specific competence bundles that may not correspond to full occupational profiles, but still require credible recognition if they are to be portable across firms, regions or sectors.

OECD analysis highlights that, in contexts of structural change, persistent misalignment between formal qualifications and labour-market needs can encourage the use of alternative or more fragmented forms of skills recognition (OECD, 2023[16]). In Ukraine, this risk appears particularly relevant in reconstruction-related sectors. Insights from interviews with employers and training providers suggest that some firms rely on firm-based training, on-the‑job learning and informal skill recognition to address immediate skill needs. These approaches can be effective for firm-specific skills and immediate operational needs. However, when they compensate for delays in recognised qualifications, they can weaken the signalling role of the formal qualification system. Workers may become dependent on employer-specific recognition that is difficult to demonstrate elsewhere, other firms may struggle to interpret their competences, and employers may duplicate training because they cannot rely on common signals of competence. Over time, this can reduce skills portability and encourage parallel recognition practices outside the qualification system.

Digital and green competences create an additional updating challenge. They often cut across existing occupations and sectors, rather than forming entirely new occupational profiles. Skills related to energy efficiency, renewable energy systems, digital construction tools, automation, basic data use and environmental compliance are becoming increasingly relevant within existing occupations (European Union law, 2022[17]). In Ukraine, where occupational standards already provide a reference for qualification design, the challenge is that these transversal or task-specific competences can be difficult to integrate when updates depend mainly on full revision cycles (ETF, 2021[18]).

A related, but distinct, challenge concerns international comparability and recognition. The EQF helps make national qualifications more readable and comparable across systems, supporting labour mobility and lifelong learning (Cedefop, 2024[19]). However, aligning a national framework with the EQF involves more than comparing level descriptors: it also requires coherent governance, reliable qualification information, interoperable transparency tools and consistent use of EQF referencing across education sectors and documentation. Ukraine has completed an analytical comparison of its NQF with the EQF, but formal referencing has not yet been finalised and EQF levels are not consistently indicated on qualification documents, limiting the transparency and portability of Ukrainian qualifications abroad (Cedefop, 2024[19]). This matters in the context of large‑scale displacement and labour mobility: as of 31 December 2025, around 4.35 million non-EU citizens who had fled Ukraine held temporary protection status in EU countries, granting them residence rights and access to employment opportunities (Eurostat, 2026[20]). Limited international readability of qualifications can make it harder for workers, employers and institutions to interpret Ukrainian credentials abroad and upon eventual return.

Together, these pressures point to a common challenge: Ukraine’s qualification system needs to preserve trust and coherence while becoming more responsive to specific, fast-evolving and internationally relevant skill needs.

2.2. Integration of micro-credentials into national qualification systems

Micro-qualifications and other short learning formats are increasingly used across VET systems to respond to fast-changing skill needs, particularly for adults and workers requiring targeted upskilling or reskilling (OECD, 2023[1]). They can be especially useful in contexts of reconstruction and structural change, where workers may need to acquire specific competences quickly. However, their expansion also creates challenges for qualification systems when their role, status and relationship to formal qualifications are not clearly defined.

The central issue is how micro-qualifications are positioned within the wider qualification system. OECD comparative analysis shows that, when short credentials are not linked to recognised modules, partial qualifications or progression pathways, they can develop in parallel to formal qualification systems and have uneven labour-market value (OECD, 2023[1]). Their recognition may then depend on local or bilateral arrangements between providers and employers, limiting portability beyond specific firms, projects or local labour markets. Wide variation in learning outcomes, workload, assessment methods and documentation can also make it difficult for employers and learners to understand what a micro-qualification certifies and how it relates to other qualifications (ETF, 2022[21]).

In Ukraine, micro-qualifications have emerged pragmatically in response to urgent skill needs linked to reconstruction, displacement and task-level change. They are often developed as short, targeted programmes in co‑operation with employers and can respond faster than full qualification updates. This flexibility is relevant in areas where employers need workers to acquire specific competences quickly, such as safety protocols, machinery operation, energy-efficiency practices, compliance with updated building or technical standards, and digital tools used in construction, logistics or site management.

At the same time, the current position of micro-qualifications within Ukraine’s qualification architecture remains unclear. They are not yet explicitly anchored in the NQF, are not systematically registered in the Unified Qualifications Register and are not normally assessed through Qualification Centres. Their recognition therefore depends largely on the provider, project or employer involved. This limits their portability and may create overlap with existing instruments.

This issue is particularly important because Ukraine already recognises partial professional qualifications linked to occupational standards. These provide a formal mechanism for certifying defined sets of competences, but their relationship with emerging micro-qualifications is not yet clearly established. Without clearer boundaries, learners and employers may struggle to understand the difference between a micro-qualification, a partial professional qualification and a provider-specific short course.

2.3. Assessment practices in vocational qualifications

The credibility of vocational qualifications depends not only on how they are designed and updated, but also on how competences are assessed in practice. In competence‑based systems, assessment must translate occupational standards into reliable judgements about what candidates know and can do. This is institutionally demanding because practical assessment often relies on professional judgement, sector-specific infrastructure and the interpretation of learning outcomes across different work contexts (OECD, 2023[1]). This concern is also reflected in recent OECD work on PISA-VET, an international assessment being developed to measure the skills of learners completing initial VET programmes in selected occupations. PISA-VET will assess learners’ ability to use professional knowledge and skills to meet real workplace challenges, and its analytical framework covers both occupational knowledge and employability skills (OECD, n.d.[22]). This reinforces the broader policy point that credible vocational qualifications depend not only on standards and curricula, but also on the capacity to assess applied competences consistently and in contexts close to real work.

Ukraine has developed a strong institutional basis for credible certification by separating training provision from assessment and establishing accredited Qualification Centres accredited by the NQA. These centres assess candidates against occupational standards, regardless of how competences were acquired. This model can strengthen objectivity and portability, particularly when it supports RPL and the certification of skills acquired outside formal education.

However, implementation remains uneven across Qualification Centres, sectors and regions. Stakeholder consultations and system reviews indicate that differences in assessor experience, sectoral specialisation, access to equipment and interpretation of occupational standards can affect the comparability of assessment outcomes. These differences are best understood as issues of capacity and system maturity rather than weaknesses in the regulatory framework. Nevertheless, they can weaken employer confidence if candidates certified in different centres or regions are perceived as having been assessed against different expectations.

The assessment of practical, work-based and non-formal learning creates additional demands. International evidence shows that RPL and competence‑based assessment are important for flexible and inclusive skills systems, but they are methodologically demanding and resource‑intensive (OECD, 2019[23]; OECD, 2023[1]).

In Ukraine, these challenges are amplified by displacement, reconstruction and labour mobility. Qualification Centres may need to assess candidates with substantial practical experience but heterogeneous learning pathways, including workers who acquired skills on the job, in non-formal training or in different regional or sectoral contexts. RPL is formally embedded in Ukraine’s qualification system, but its use remains limited, partly because assessment is resource‑intensive and assessor capacity varies. The core challenge is therefore to ensure that assessment outcomes remain comparable and trusted as Ukraine expands certification through Qualification Centres and recognition of skills acquired through diverse pathways.

2.4. Employer engagement in vocational qualifications

Employer engagement is essential for ensuring that vocational qualifications reflect workplace practices and evolving skill needs. Across countries, however, sustaining broad and continuous employer participation in qualification development is difficult. Engagement requires time, technical expertise and familiarity with qualification processes, while the benefits often materialise only over the medium term. As a result, participation tends to be concentrated among large firms, sectoral associations or employers with dedicated human resource capacity, while SMEs are less represented (OECD, 2023[1]).

In Ukraine, employers are formally embedded in the qualification system through SQCs, consultation processes and occupational standard development. This provides an important foundation for labour-market relevance. In practice, however, participation remains uneven across sectors and regions. Sustained engagement is often concentrated among larger firms or well-organised sectoral actors, while many employers, particularly SMEs, participate only intermittently. War-related uncertainty, operational pressures and reconstruction demands further limit the capacity of firms to engage consistently.

Uneven engagement is particularly relevant in Ukraine because reconstruction-related skill needs vary significantly across sectors and territories. Regions affected by damage, population loss, relocation or rapid recovery projects may face acute and specific skill needs, but these signals are not always systematically captured or translated into qualification updates. As a result, the qualification system may under-represent the skill needs of firms and territories with weaker organisational capacity, even where labour-market pressures are significant.

This creates a risk that employer input remains fragmented and dependent on specific projects, sectors or individual actors. OECD analysis shows that while such arrangements can produce useful outcomes in specific contexts, they can be difficult to sustain, replicate and scale across the wider qualification system (OECD, 2025[24]). Successful initiatives involving employers, VET providers and public authorities exist, but they are not always translated into broader qualification development and updating processes. The challenge is therefore not only whether employers are consulted, but whether their input is sufficiently continuous, representative and connected to qualification development and updating processes.