The State Audit Office of Ukraine has checked the modernization program of vocational education institutions financed by the Ukraine Facility. The audit revealed that only six out of 88 planned training and practical centers actually operated in 2024, despite over 549 million UAH allocated for this program. This was reported by 'Glavkom' with reference to the State Audit Office.
The audit found that the reform of vocational education institutions aimed at creating modern centers with relevant knowledge and bases for the retraining of the adult population. The reasons for the failure are ineffective planning, non-compliance with co-financing conditions, and infrastructure problems.
For example, at the Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic Center, outdated equipment manufactured in the 1980s was purchased with European assistance. In the Cherkasy region, two individual entrepreneurs failed to deliver equipment worth 616 thousand UAH.
The State Audit Office provided recommendations to the Ministry of Education and Science regarding control over the use of funds and called for the introduction of systematic monitoring for projects funded by the Ukraine Facility. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky also announced the allocation of 300 million UAH to universities in frontline and border regions to improve learning conditions amid conflict.
The audit revealed problems in the implementation of the modernization program for vocational education institutions, namely, a low number of centers, ineffective planning, non-compliance with co-financing conditions, infrastructure unpreparedness, and systemic deficiencies in procurement procedures.