On December 23, the first meeting of the national Advisory Council on Skills Training took place in the project office at 4 Khreshchatyk St.

Advisory Council on Skills Training is aimed at supporting the consolidation of efforts of government agencies, training institutions, international organizations and projects as well as other stakeholders in building a better, more effective skills training system in Ukraine.

Advisory Council has the following key objectives:

• facilitating effective dialogue between key stakeholders of the skills training system;
• coordination of the efforts of government agencies, training institutions, international organizations and other stakeholders improving the skills training system in Ukraine;
• identification of key issues in the skills training system and development of strategic recommendations to tackle these issues;
• identification and dissemination of best practices;

Advisory Council consists of representatives of some of the key national skills training system stakeholders, such as the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Economy, national non-governmental organizations, think tanks, and training institutions.

The council is an open informal collective body, and any organization or individual interested in helping implement the project can participate in its work.

During the first Advisory Council meeting, the participants were briefed about project goal, objectives, expected results, and current activities, specifically the progress of developing regional skills training improvement strategies.

A number of issues that were identified by the regional working groups and require consolidated efforts of regional and national stakeholders, were discussed at the meeting. Among those were:

Proposals and feedback received from the council members will be further reviewed and included into the project work plan.