Girls driving tractors, boys operating sewing machines. How Brovary is overcoming educational imbalance and teaching children to choose a profession they love
- Mar 2
- 6 min read
For decades, a stereotype prevailed in Ukraine: a successful future is only possible with a university degree. However, the reality of the labour market is often different. In Brovary, officials decided to speak openly about the imbalance: while the employment centre is looking for builders and cooks, people with higher education who cannot find work in their field are turning to them for help.
Today, Brovarska community, in collaboration with the Swiss-Ukrainian DECIDE Project, is piloting a career counselling system to teach young people to choose a profession not ‘on advice’ but based on their calling and the needs of real life.
‘In fact, without career guidance, effective reform of specialised secondary schools is unlikely to happen, because career guidance enables children to choose their path in academic or professional education,’ says Valentyna Poltorak, DECIDE Project Manager..
From persuasion to informed choice
Targeted career guidance has been practised in Brovary for a long time. For example, some heads of educational institutions, particularly pre-schools, visit the workplaces of parents in various fields with their children to familiarise them with the world of professions from an early age.
However, universities have mostly attracted the attention of graduates. They organised excursions, provided transport, meals and vivid presentations, and it worked – schoolchildren enrolled in 11th grade en masse. However, the city is developing, and the need for skilled workers has become critical.
‘It is time to change the situation. We realised that we need to take a position that is increasingly being discussed in Ukraine today – that not all students can finish grade 11 and not everyone needs higher education to find a good job. DECIDE: VET Programme has actually helped with this,’ says Larysa Vynohradova, Deputy Mayor of Brovary.
Valentyna Poltorak emphasises: ‘Vocational education means that a person gains practical experience and applied skills. It is a kind of reliable economic foundation: a person will always have the opportunity to work in their profession if they do not find a job in the field for which they obtained their higher education diploma.’
Who are career counsellors and how do they work in Brovary?
A career counsellor is a bridge between school and the job market. In Brovary, this system is implemented through extracurricular activities and after-school programmes, using materials from the Zurich University of Teacher Education.
‘A career counsellor at school is a teacher who, first and foremost, should be a partner to adolescents in finding their own preferences and interests in various professional fields,’ explains Valentyna Poltorak.
Svitlana Mykhaliuk, Consultant at the Centre for Professional Development of Teaching Staff, coordinates career guidance in the community and says that the primary objective is to show children the wide range of professions available, from sound engineer to electric welder.
‘At first, only 15 children would come to the after-school club. But as soon as we became more active, parents themselves started calling the counsellors and asking how to get involved,’ says Svitlana.
More than 40 excursions and events have already been held in Brovary. Here, instead of just talking about work, children are given the opportunity to get hands-on experience:
At manufacturing facilities such as the Zeelandia bakery, children not only tasted buns, but also tested the quality of the icing in the laboratory together with technologists.
In timber processing, such as at the Yavir enterprise, schoolchildren learned about the work of carpenters and machine operators.
Within the framework of a pilot project for 100 eighth-grade students, employees of the Aesthetic and Naturalistic Centre organised and conducted an ecological quiz entitled ‘In the Footsteps of Harry Potter’. During the quiz, the students solved various environmental challenges based on the novels of J.K. Rowling.
The tasks were in English and Ukrainian. The focus was on the following professions: ecologist, biologist, translator, medical biologist. Environmental competence is a global trend, and career guidance can and should contribute to the development of competencies.
In the high-tech sector. At Fronius Ukraine, students immersed in the world of solar energy and tried their hand at welding on VR simulators.
The master class ‘Lords of Metal and Fire’ also evoked a lot of excitement, as children attempted to weld metal themselves using a hand-held welding machine.
There was also an off-site career guidance event called ‘Me in the World of Professions’ organised by the Kyiv Regional Vocational School of Food Technology and Restaurant Service. Schoolchildren learned about the professions that are taught at this educational institution: ‘Cook’, ‘Waiter’, ‘Pastry Chef,’ and ‘Bartender’.
The students were taught how to set and decorate a table, make non-alcoholic cocktails in the correct proportions, make decorative elements from confectionery mastic, and prepare and decorate mini-sandwiches.
At the Kamelia-PR company, lyceum students had the opportunity to learn about the processes of growing flowers, sorting, storing, packaging, and even disposal. They also learned about the work of florists and agronomists and saw how important the work of electricians, plumbers, welders, and gas and solid fuel boiler operators is in maintaining stable production.
The company uses modern technologies such as climate control systems, drip irrigation, artificial lighting, and grows over 40 varieties of roses.
‘And these are just a few examples. Of course, the main focus is on blue-collar professions that can be learned in Brovarska community, such as chef-confectioner, electric welder, plumber, electrician, among others. The students also learned in detail about the following professions: tailor, seamstress, hairdresser, car mechanic, carpenter, joiner, waiter, bartender, and administrator. We introduce them to a wide range of professions so that children can compare which ones are closer to them,’ says Svitlana Mykhaliuk.
Thanks to these field master classes, more than 700 students in grades 8–10 from educational institutions in Brovarska community were involved in career guidance.
Breaking stereotypes: girls driving tractors, boys operating sewing machines
One of the biggest challenges in career guidance is overcoming prejudices about the ‘prestige’ and ‘gender’ of professions.
‘We managed to destroy the gender stereotype. Boys successfully mastered sewing machines and made buns, while girls disassembled starters, drove tractors, and carefully performed metal welding tasks,’ says Svitlana Mykhaliuk.
One female student was so skilled at welding that she exclaimed excitedly, ‘We have a machine like this at home, now I’ll show my dad how good I am at it!’ Another student decided after the baking master class that he would definitely become a pastry chef.
Svitlana Mykhaliuk shares that, as a career coordinator in the community, her motivation for organising new career guidance events comes from comments and questions from students, such as: ‘Where will we go next time?’ ‘I’ll tell my friends about this place and bring them here for the open day,’ ‘Wow, I did 90 per cent of the electric welding simulator correctly! Can I try again?’, ‘Are we going to make buns too?’, ‘What an interesting pizza topping, I’ll make the same one tonight’, ‘You check the quality of the mayonnaise so carefully, I’ll tell my family to only buy this brand’, ‘Can I come and work for you?’
‘These are incredible emotions and a clear understanding that we are on the right track. Career counsellors are important first and foremost to help children better navigate the wide range of professions. After all, there are so many of them, and new ones are constantly appearing. Sometimes children have no idea what a profession such as bioengineering is. But maybe this is exactly what they would like to do,’ concludes Svitlana Mykhaliuk.
Why is this important for the community?
Career guidance is not entertainment for children, but an investment in the development of the city. The community is interested in young people staying in Brovary, starting businesses here, and filling vacancies at local enterprises.
‘There is still a lot of work to be done. For example, we investigated an obvious problem at our vocational college. Most of the students who study there are from Chernihiv region. The educational institution has a dormitory, and children are happy to come to Brovary to study for blue-collar professions. We have nothing against this, but at the same time, our children are mostly focused on educational institutions in Kyiv. This is a problem because we would like to open up professions that would be of interest to our city and where our children could study and work. We hope that the situation will change now that the college has started to hold more career guidance events for students at our schools,’ explains Larysa Vynohradova.
After the completion of grant support, Brovary is discussing with local councillors further funding for career counsellors, the organisation of excursions and career guidance events from the city budget.
‘At DECIDE, we are convinced that without blue-collar professions and the focused efforts of society as a whole to raise their prestige, the task of rebuilding Ukraine with the hands of Ukrainians themselves will be extremely difficult. At the same time, we lack engineers, specialists in the chemical industry, robotics, and dozens of other fields. We can guide young people towards these professions by working together with businesses and educational institutions to demonstrate real prospects. Today, we are laying the foundation for our young people to choose their path consciously and see their future here, at home,’ concludes Valentyna Poltorak.
The DECIDE project is implemented by NGO DOCCU and PHZH International Projects in Education with the support of the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine.