The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has introduced large-scale amendments to the rules governing educational services and professional training provided through the State Employment Service. The corresponding Resolution No. 1225 was adopted on October 7, 2026, aiming to realign the workforce training system with the actual and pressing demands of the labor market.
New Voucher Requirements and Educational Institution Selection
One of the key innovations is the requirement to provide a mandatory recommendation letter from an employer or potential employer in order to receive a training voucher. Funding for these vouchers is allocated from the Compulsory State Social Insurance Fund in Case of Unemployment, with the maximum compensation amount reaching 33,280 hryvnias. Furthermore, the procedure for choosing an educational institution has changed significantly; institutions must now be strictly selected from the registry of the Unified State Electronic Database on Education.
Restrictions on Repeated Training and New Qualification Standards
The government resolution established strict restrictions for citizens who have already undergone vocational training funded by the Social Insurance Fund over the past three years. However, these restrictions do not apply to internally displaced persons who are registered as clients of the employment service. From now on, training and retraining of registered unemployed individuals will be conducted exclusively based on professional qualifications included in the Unified Register of Qualifications and the official Classifier of Professions.
Maintenance of Benefits and Employment Obligations
An important social safeguard is the preservation of unemployment benefits throughout the entire period of vocational training for specific categories of registered unemployed citizens. Simultaneously, the conditions of the experimental project for training women in rare and in-demand professions were adjusted. Specifically, female graduates are required to officially secure employment in their acquired specialty within 45 calendar days following the completion of their studies, while the commissioning employer must provide a job within 60 calendar days.
Significance of the Reform for the Labor Market
The modernization of vocational training rules and voucher issuance aims to eliminate the imbalance between business needs and applicant qualifications. The strict alignment of training programs with real employer demands, official classifiers, and mandatory employment guarantees makes state support more targeted and effective. In a complex economic situation, such measures will help fill critical job vacancies faster and enhance the competitiveness of Ukrainian specialists in the labor market.
