College instead of vocational schools and "bursas": Rada approved new law on vocational education
Kyiv • UNN
The Verkhovna Rada adopted the draft law "On Vocational Education" (№13107-d), which replaces vocational schools with professional colleges. The new law provides for financial autonomy, simplified licensing, and active business participation in management.
The Verkhovna Rada adopted the draft law on vocational education (No. 13107-d), which replaces vocational schools and "bursas" with vocational colleges, Serhiy Babak, head of the VR Committee on Education, Science, and Innovation, announced on Thursday in Telegram, writes UNN.
The draft law "On Vocational Education" (No. 13107-d) has just been voted on. 285 votes - "for". Now officially: no more vocational schools or "bursas". From now on: vocational college
"An institution with modern, understandable curricula. With a new management approach. With the opportunity to quickly master a new profession - for adults and war veterans," the MP continued.
According to him, this also means +500 million euros to the country's budget, "because the adopted draft law is pro-European integration and is a marker of the Ukraine Facility program."
What the new law changes
According to him, "in simple terms" the law changes the following:
- Types of institutions. A basic type of institution appears - a vocational college. Along with it, military colleges, training centers, and centers of professional excellence operate. All have clearly defined duties, rights, and opportunities.
- Finance and autonomy. Communal, state vocational education institutions can be formed and function both as a budgetary institution and as non-profit societies. The law grants the right to open foreign currency accounts, place deposits, independently form and use their own revenues (which have the status of non-profit societies) and attract investors.
- Licensing. The principle of "one license - one level" has been introduced. The institution receives a single license for the level of vocational education and opens any programs within it. Licensing is carried out by the State Education Quality Service, separated from policy formation. Simplified submission of documents, including electronic, with verification through state registers.
- Business participation. A supervisory board is created in each state or communal institution, half of which are representatives of employers. They actively participate in key decisions: propose candidates for the head, approve financial plans, influence the development strategy and curricula. That is, business transforms from a formal "observer" into a partner in managing the educational process.
- Assessment of results. Qualification (both full and partial) is assigned by a separate qualification center, subordinate to the National Qualifications Agency. An educational institution can create such a center, but does not have the right to assess its own students. This introduces the principle: "one teaches - another checks." This approach increases trust in learning outcomes from both employers and the labor market itself.
- Non-formal/informal education. Knowledge acquired through non-formal education can be confirmed through qualification centers. This allows legalizing experience without repeated training.