Work.ua has launched the ‘Nazustrich’ platform for employing veterans. ‘Employers cannot find veterans, and veterans cannot find employers. This often happens because veterans do not consider their military experience to be part of their professional career and do not include it in their CVs,’ says Kateryna Rozlutska, head of the Nazumrich project. – ‘The platform will help the military find a job after service, and employers will help find specialists.
It will feature vacancies with a preference for veterans, information on initiatives and organisations that support veterans in finding a job and adapting to civilian life, articles, news, useful materials for candidates and employers, a list of companies that actively hire veterans, access to a resume database, and successful employment cases from employers.
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Employment through the eyes of the military
Mykhailo Karabut, a representative of the 3rd Assault Brigade, emphasises that veterans return to civilian life from a completely different reality. ‘Some of them fought for three years, others for ten. Many of them have forgotten which platforms post vacancies and how to write a CV. The world a military man lives in until he is discharged is a war. Therefore, it may be important for a veteran that a future employer respects the things that are valuable to him or her. For example, to take time off to go to the funeral of a fellow soldier or undergo a medical examination. It’s about a corporate culture that values the defender. After all, these are people who have great potential, who know best what crisis management, teamwork, and stress resistance are.’
Veterans are not ready for civilian life
‘Since there is currently no demobilisation procedure, most veterans are people with disabilities. That is why employers should be open not only to hiring people with military experience, but also to creating inclusive workplaces,’ emphasises Olena Kvitoslava Yatskiv, Head of Social Reintegration at the Superhumans Centre. ’One of the major problems is that people are mobilised and prepared for military service, but not prepared for discharge and life afterwards. Even if a person was a good specialist in their field, then went to war, and then spent another year and a half being treated and rehabilitated after being wounded, they will lose certain professional skills they had. Therefore, the first step is always courses, training, and additional education. State educational programmes are usually designed for several years. And people need to feed their families right now. We need to create a modern, large-scale solution for retraining veterans.’
Retraining courses
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine lost, according to various estimates, between 3 and 5 million of its working-age population. Most of them went abroad, some stayed in the occupied territories, and some serve in the Armed Forces. Deputy Minister of Veterans Affairs Yulia Kirilova says that the average portrait of a veteran is mostly a young man of working age, 35-45 years old. Therefore, one of the tasks of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, together with employers, is to create decent working conditions for veterans after they return from service.
‘Some of them want to change their profession and choose short-term training courses. The Ukrainian Veterans’ Fund is a strategic partner of the Ministry of Veterans in this matter. We now have 27 Veteran Development Centres based at higher education institutions in each region, which develop and create short-term retraining programmes for veterans. We cover up to UAH 45,000 of the tuition fee for these programmes.’
After retraining, veterans can find a job in a new speciality.
Jobs for veterans
Kateryna Rozlutska notes that Work.ua currently has more than four thousand vacancies where military experience is an advantage, and more than six thousand CVs with the status of a veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The platform also shows how the number of vacancies with a preference for veterans is distributed by region. The highest number is in Mykolaiv region and in the western regions of Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Rivne. 43% of such offers are marked as ‘job offer for a person with a disability’, and 8% have a remote work format.
‘I should note that these are only those vacancies where military experience is considered an advantage. However, all vacancies on Work.ua are open to people with military experience,’ says Kateryna and stresses that it is important to list your military experience as professional in your CV, not to neglect it.
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