More than 14 million people are thought to have fled their homes since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to UN's International Organisation for Migration (IOM). About eight million people are displaced inside the war-torn country, while six million have left for neighbouring countries. From them, 2 million are school age.

VET systems are facing the challenge of welcoming Ukrainians refugee students providing them with new opportunities to re-engage in education and training activities, socialise with their peers in a new cultural setting, and develop skills which will be useful for finding a job in the host country or once they will return to Ukraine.

In this article, we analyse and synthesise among other sources, member states’ national policies to support the integration of Ukrainian refuges into VET based on ReferNet 2022 national inputs. Our work on Tackling early leaving from VET provides multiple scenarios which should be taken into consideration, and for which it is important to make VET programmes accessible to all refugee students: 

  • Some Ukrainian students had to interrupt their VET programmes fleeing from the war in their country. Host countries should provide them with the opportunity to continue in their learning path and prevent them from becoming early leavers.
  • Others were participating in general education in their country but may now find VET pathways more relevant for them to proceed with their studies in a host country. This is because a more practical oriented training can overcome language barriers and other learning difficulties more easily than re-integrating in general education.
  • Others were already early leavers in their own country for some time before the war started and they may now be given an opportunity to resume their studies, integrate and qualify in VET.

How VET policy makers respond to Ukrainian refugees needs

A major concern for policy makers in European countries is to support Ukrainian refugees to access VET. To do so they employ different means. 
Many countries provide financial support to cover study programmes and internships in VET (e.g. in Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Sweden, Slovakia). In most cases, language courses of the host country are offered for free within the VET programmes (e.g. in Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Croatia, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Portugal, Slovenia). 
Many initiatives aim to lift barriers for enrolling Ukrainian refugees in VET programmes by: 

  • allowing participation without permission for permanent stay (e.g. in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal);
  • giving flexible deadlines for enrolment – in some cases, by enlarging the capacity of buildings and classroom spaces – and increasing the maximum number of admissions (e.g. in Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, Slovenia);
  • simplifying the qualifications’ recognition process (e.g. in Germany, Estonia, Lithuania, Portugal);
  • engaging Ukrainian learners already enrolled in VET programmes to ongoing Erasmus+ KA1 projects, through a flexible use of the project funding (e.g. Finland).

For dual VET, meaning for VET taking place in both school and work-based settings, countries provide a list of companies ready to accept refugees for work-based learning (e.g. in Slovakia, Romania). They also translate learning material (e.g. Romania, Spain, Latvia) and information on educational system and services (e.g. in France, Greece) in Ukrainian language. There are quite a few countries who are recruiting Ukrainian/Russian speaking teaching staff in VET institutions (e.g. in Sweden, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Estonia). 

 

Are VET teachers and trainers ready to support Ukrainian refugee learners? 

The large wave of refugees in Europe, fleeing from war-torn Ukraine, poses teachers and trainers at all levels and in all types of education and training in front of an unprecedented challenge.

While Ukraine’s education system is being upended by the war, teachers are helping to provide stability for their students, along with other forms of emergency support such as evacuation and humanitarian aid. Techers and trainers in host countries welcome refugee and displaced learners creating the conditions for a safe and protected environment and enabling them to continue with their education and training. 

Schools are also a place where psychosocial support can be provided in a non-stigmatizing way, and VET programmes help refugee students to maintain a sense of stability in their lives, providing routines and structures which make it possible for learners to achieve their goals in a stable and secure developmental context. Education and training institutions are therefore ideal places to operate as zones of protection, resilience, prevention and psychosocial support during difficulty and uncertain times. 

As a result of an increased and diverse flow of migration and international mobility, learning environments are composed by ever more heterogeneous groups of learners. This greater diversity of learners can be of different origin: their diverse ages, abilities, different socio-economic backgrounds, special (educational) needs, cultural, ethnic and language backgrounds. Depending on the aspect of diversity under consideration, school principals report that 17% to 31% of the teachers on average across the OECD that covers many European countries, work in educational institutions with a diverse student composition (ETUCE, 2021). Since it is unlikely that the same schools assemble all forms of diversity at the same time, the proportion of teachers working with a diverse student population is probably much higher. These averages, however, cover significant cross-country variations (TALIS, 2018). 

According to the Education and Training Monitor 2019, 34% of teachers in the EU work in schools with at least 10% of special needs students; 24% of teachers work in schools with at least 10% non-native-speaking students; 32% of teachers work in schools with at least 1% refugee students, number that has multiplied in 2022 due to students fleeing from the war in Ukraine; and 19% of teachers work in schools where more than 30% of students come from a socio-economically disadvantaged background.

What member states do to support teachers and trainers in initial VET?

There are several initiatives taken at host country level to support teachers in VET schools and in- company trainers providing work-based learning. Main activities drawn from ReferNet inputs (2022) include:

  • offering teacher training on intercultural education and diverse classrooms (e.g. in Greece);
  • creating websites, resources and training sessions for teachers and professionals working with Ukrainian refugee learners (e.g. in Czech Republic, Croatia, Netherlands, Poland);
  • organising webinars for schools on integration of non-native speakers (e.g. in Estonia);
  • promoting intercultural competences for in-company trainers to support young refugees in apprenticeship schemes (e.g. in Germany, Greece);
  • developing new initial training and professional development programmes focusing on poverty and social exclusion to identify and support learners at risk (e.g. in Malta);
  • mobilising intercultural teams to support teachers who work with immigrant and refugee children (e.g. in Austria);
  • providing guidelines on mental and psychosocial support in emergency settings to equip teachers with the tools to create a safe and supportive environment through structured psychosocial activities (e.g. constructive classroom management; recognition of signs of distress; use of referral mechanisms).

Policy gaps and challenges 

Despite the great effort made at EU level, certain aspects remain challenging to fully integrate Ukrainian refugee learners in VET systems of the hosting countries. VET policy and programmes need to be adapted to these exceptional circumstances and tailored upon the new learners’ needs becoming more flexible. If before, VET systems were facing the challenge of being inclusive and supportive with students with different abilities and backgrounds, now this should be posed as a priority on the VET agenda, along with the need of focusing on learners’ well-being and mental health especially following experiences of trauma. 

Furthermore, attention should be paid to not overload refugee learners with studying activities as they may be already stressed by the situation and might be following double learning programmes to continue with the Ukrainian curricula and start a new one in the host country. Finally, all the previous challenges can be difficult to address being uncertain if solutions should be in the short or in the long term as it is unsure for how long Ukrainian students will stay in the host country.

Cedefop employs its toolkits to support refugees

Along with the spread and shared EU effort to provide substantial measures to support refugee learners, Cedefop is developing new resources to enhance Ukrainians’ integration in vocational education and training. In the VET toolkit for tackling early leaving and in the VET toolkit for empowering NEETs, useful good practises and tools are available for policy makers and VET practitioners to support learners at risk of dropping out; re-engage early leavers in education and training; well manage diverse classrooms and other learning environments; support students with migratory background and intervene when psychosocial assistance is needed for refugee learners with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Stay tuned, as soon, we will have available a new intervention approach on psychosocial support for VET learners. 

Check out here our VET toolkit’s related resources.

Join our network of ambassadors and help us tackle early leaving from VET. Apply here.
 

Ukrainian refugees