Since April 2024, Craftspeople without Borders support vocational teachers of the Kharkiv “oblast” (region), in the north-east of Ukraine by offering online training in a “train the trainer” format.
Mr Maksym Kolinko (Kharkiv Regional Council) coordinated at the Ukrainian side the cooperation with the regional vocational institutions. They have chosen 3 craft trades with high needs and potential for online training: automotive, hairdressing and welding.
Our Craftspeople without Borders Dirk Niemeyer and Mohamed Benamar (automotive), Muzhgan Herawi (hairdressing) and Fabrice Carstens (welding) have managed to design and carry out “very valuable and interesting” online courses, as participants acknowledged in a confidential survey.
A training concept adapted to the situation in Kharkiv
To deal with the Ukrainian reality, the trainings take place with an interpreter twice a week for 2 hours, in the afternoon after the workday of the Ukrainian teachers.
The German trainers use a pedagogical mix: explaining the theory and showing the practice. Each course is recorded and available to the participants on an online learning platform.
The main problem for the participants resides in the internet connection: due to numerous air alarms (over 500 alarms during more than 1.000 hours between April and June 2024), the internet connection is regularly interrupted. Additionally, they face long daily interruptions in electricity. Thus, the video recordings available on the online learning platform are crucial.
Even though war is part of the daily life of Ukrainians in the Kharkiv region, a country’s future depends on education. In particular, graduates of the vocational education system will have to assume a significant role in the reconstruction of a modern and efficient infrastructure.
Despite their hardship in their daily lives, the vocational teachers are very eager to take part in further training courses in order to update their teaching competencies, ranging from technical and professional competencies in their trade to pedagogical topics. They also show great interest in the German dual system.
Workshop in Frankfurt
At the end of August, Mr Maksym Kolinko (Head of the Department of Territorial and Local Development and International Relations Kharkiv Regional Council) could attend a workshop meeting in the headquarters of Handwerkskammer Frankfurt-Rhein-Main in Frankfurt. Markus Eicher and Céline Wieprecht (Craftspeople without Borders project office) met their cooperation partner Mr Kolinko for the first time in real and could discuss with him the best way to continue the online “train the trainer” missions as well as other cooperation possibilities.
Kharkiv is a partner region of Wielkopolska in Poland, with the Marshall Office of Wielkopolska being an associate member of the Craftspeople without Borders project, who established the contact between the Kharkiv Regional Council and the project office / Handwerkskammer Frankfurt-Rhein-Main.
