Ten Ukrainian women have successfully completed training in construction equipment management and qualified as excavator operators and forklift drivers as part of the Iron Women programme. The initiative is being implemented by the Reskilling Ukraine project in partnership with Volvo Group and ETS Group with the information support of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine.
The programme aims to overcome the gender imbalance in the labour market and help women master in-demand professions where they were previously less represented. According to Tetiana Berezhna, Deputy Minister of Economy, the graduates of the programme will now be able to work at extractive industry enterprises and industrial facilities.
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A total of 85 women applied for the programme, but only 10 participants were selected. The theoretical part of the programme took place at the Golovinsky Higher Vocational School of Non-Metallic Technologies, while practical training was conducted at ETS Group using modern equipment, including the first electric front-end loader in Ukraine. After a month of intensive training, the participants successfully passed the exams and received state qualifications: excavator operator category 5 and forklift driver category 4.
According to Denys Gordienko, Beredskapslyftet’s project leader, the programme has been helping women retrain for more than a year, and in 2024, it is planned to expand training to industrial specialities, including truck and bus driving.
The graduation ceremony took place on 12 December with the participation of representatives of the World Bank, UNHCR, the Embassy of Sweden, as well as Volvo Trucks Ukraine and Renault Trucks.
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