On June 1, 2017, the final part of All-Ukrainian skills contest in the profession “Installer of the sanitary and technical systems and equipment” was conducted in International Exhibition Center in Kyiv. The event was organized within four-year Swiss-Ukrainian project “Public-private partnership to improve sanitary education in Ukraine” funded by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in partnership with Geberit International Sales AG.
The contest was held during May 30 – June 1, 2017. Students and the first graduates of six vocational schools from Brovary, Dnipro, Odesa, Poltava, Sarny, and Chernihiv, where modern interregional Training and Resource Centers were created, participated. In 2017, the first 136 certified plumbers, who received the education of European level, graduated from these schools.
Semifinal competition was held in Brovary professional lyceum and consisted of theoretical and practical part. Six teams representing each vocational school competed. Three teams that demonstrated top scores passed to the final.
The final competition was conducted in the frame of International Exhibition “Aqua-Term Kyiv”. The representatives of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Geberit Trading, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, GURT Resource Centre, vocational schools participated.
Finalists performed the practical task: during the limited time, they had to install the modern wall mounted toilet. The professional jury evaluated the work.
Andriy Kudriavtsev and Volodymyr Makhmudov, young professionals from Odesa Center of Vocational Education, became the winners of the All-Ukrainian contest.
Maksym Bobchynets and Taras Novik from Chernihiv professional lyceum of railway transport took the second prize. Oleksandr Kovernyk and Artem Makarchuk from Brovary professional lyceum took the third prize.
The winners received diplomas and the opportunity to pass internship on the base of industry leaders. Andrii and Volodymyr, who took the first prize, say that they plan to work as plumbers. They are convinced: a plumber, who understands the modern techniques, will always find the rewarding job.
Pavlo Khobzei, the Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, congratulated the participants. On behalf of the Government, he thanked all partners for their help in the development of this industry. The Deputy Minister mentioned that similar centres had been already established in all regions of Ukraine.
Viktor Shutkevych, the Deputy Director of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Ukraine, congratulated the finalists: “For the Swiss Government, it is the first public-private partnership project in Ukraine the field of vocational education. The project is co-funded by Swiss business community and implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. This project is a fantastic opportunity for Ukrainian colleges to move to a new level. Thanks to the modern equipment and new curricula, schools will be able to prepare competitive professionals”.
Oleksii Rakov, the General Director of Geberit Trading and the Jury Chairman, emphasized the practicability of the project: “The need in the project is justified by the lack of the skilled plumbers, who can install modern equipment and respond to the demand on the labour market. It is less effective to re-educate plumbers than train highly qualified professionals from scratch. The Swiss Government supported Ukrainian initiative and allocated considerable funds to create vocational centers in six cities of Ukraine. These innovative centers have demonstrated their first results; they have sent the best students for the competition”.
During 2016-2017, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine rolled out the model of interregional Training and Resource Centers to 19 vocational schools from all over Ukraine at the expense of the state budget. Bohdan Maslych, Executive Director of GURT Resource Centre, reported about the achievements of the project: “We managed to create the model of Training and Resource Centers, update curricula and develop training materials that were rolled out by the government. This is the result, which we could dream of: the project has significantly affected the reform of vocational education in Ukraine”.
The video for online contest view is available below.
