Next year, UAH 7 billion will be channelled to the implementation of active employment programmes that will cover about 200,000 Ukrainians. This was reported by First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister of Economy Yuliia Svyrydenko during the final meeting of the Barrier-Free Council in 2023 with the participation of First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska and chaired by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

The meeting was attended by the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk, ministers, heads of specialized committees of the Verkhovna Rada, official representatives of the UN system in Ukraine, representatives of the judiciary and the Central Election Commission, international organizations, the Council of Europe, highly honored ambassadors of the European Union and Canada, heads of regional military administrations, representatives of civil society. Members of the Government presented the results of the implementation of flagship projects to introduce a barrier-free access, as well as plans for the next year.

Olena Zelenska noted that in the second year of the full-scale war, Ukrainians feel an even greater demand for barrier-free solutions. Today, not only the quality of life, but also the safety of communities depends on it.

“One can say: “It’s a war, what do you want? Now we have more barriers - both physical, movement and accessibility, economic - unemployment, and social ones - a big burden on everyone in general.” But this is not an argument. Because every life is valuable. And its quality matters. We do not choose the times in which we live, but we can fight,” Olena Zelenska said.

“Barrier-free access today is an urgent necessity for millions of Ukrainians. For people of different age groups, professions, and social origins. We pay particular attention to the needs of our defenders. Our duty is to remove all the obstacles that hinder adaptation, rehabilitation and self-actualization for them. We are also strengthening cooperation with local self-government authorities. After all, the final result depends on them,” Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said.

“To change our cities, adapt them to the needs of people with disabilities. To promote the adaptation of veterans to civilian life. To support those who left the occupied and frontline regions and are forced to start life from scratch. Create conditions for our youth to choose to stay in Ukraine. This is the task of the National Strategy for Barrier-Free Environment. The component that the Ministry of Economy takes care of is work without barriers. The goal of the project is to facilitate access to work for persons with disabilities, veterans, youth without work experience, and internally displaced persons,” Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Economy of Ukraine, emphasized.

According to her, in the current year, the Ministry of Economy adopted a number of decisions to implement these tasks. In particular, the eRobota grant programme for veterans has been expanded - grant funds from UAH 250,000 to UAH 1 million for business start-up and development may be taken by veterans and their spouses. To date, 227 veterans and members of their families have received such grants for over UAH 90 million.

In order to expand opportunities for people to retrain and obtain a specialty that is more in demand on the labour market, a programme of providing training vouchers is in place. This year, the list of professions and specialties for which a study voucher is issued has been increased to 124. In particular, professions have been added in the following fields: preschool education, therapy and rehabilitation, physical education and sports, civil safety, thermal power engineering, operator (boiler room fireman), junior medical sister. 18 thousand Ukrainians have already taken advantage of the opportunity to get a new profession for a voucher from the state.

To support internally displaced persons in finding work and facilitate their adaptation in their new place of residence, the Government provides financial incentives to employers who employ them. This year, 5,000 entrepreneurs received compensation from the state for employing 14,000 internally displaced persons. In addition, employers are also encouraged to hire vulnerable categories of the population, in particular, persons with disabilities, young people. Thanks to this program, since the beginning of the year, more than 90,000 such Ukrainians have found work.

In August, a compensation programme was introduced for employers for arranging workplaces for people with disabilities - up to UAH 100.5 thousand for arranging a workplace for persons with I group disabilities, up to UAH 67 thousand - for persons with II group disabilities.

“To date, employers have already received 41 compensations from the state for more than UAH 2 million for arranging workplaces for their employees. We bought special furniture, devices, and applications for them to provide them with comfortable and safe working conditions,” Yuliia Svyrydenko said.

First Deputy Prime Minister announced that next year these programmes will still be in place and will be expanded. In particular, it is planned to introduce a programme for compensating the employer for the costs of wages for persons with disabilities.

“Next year, we plan to allocate about UAH 7 billion to active employment programmes. In particular, for grant programmes to support entrepreneurship, training and retraining, compensation programmes for employers for employing vulnerable categories of Ukrainians, arranging workplaces for people with disabilities. In general, about 200,000 Ukrainians will be covered by these programs,” Yuliia Svyrydenko said.

We will remind that the National Strategy for the creation of a barrier-free space by 2030 was initiated by First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska. The strategy is aimed at forming physical, informational, digital, social and civil, economic and educational barrier-free environment for all population groups.