Young people are running away. Why Ukraine needs an employment strategy for teenagers now
"Andriy is not coming back," admits the mother of a ninth-grader from Kyiv region. In Poland, he is getting a modern education: Python courses, spoken English, and support. And here? Here, "everything is closed.".
This is not a fictional story. This is a reality in which Ukrainian teenagers see no way out, so they leave. And they don't always come back. Because the state has not yet offered them a future.
What is the root of the problem?
Career guidance in Ukraine is mostly formal. According to a study by the Ministry of Education and Science, the involvement of professional career counselors is only 0.4%. These functions are mostly performed by class teachers or deputy principals.
Meanwhile, 74% of adolescents say they lack help in choosing a career (U-Report). And only 19% say they received such support at school (USAID, 2024). 30% of students do not have basic information about educational opportunities, and IDPs and rural youth remain vulnerable.
The data from the All-Ukrainian survey "Future Index" by the Olena Zelenska Foundation confirm this gap: a significant number of Ukrainian teenagers cannot name their desired future profession, and their educational and career aspirations are significantly affected by the war, lack of access to quality extracurricular programs, and limited information about modern professions.
Despite this, 82% of respondents remain optimistic about their future, but need support to realize these expectations in Ukraine, not abroad.
It's not just about demographics. It's about the loss of human capital. And if nothing is changed, it will not be a wave, but a tsunami.
What we can change?
The solution is not to force everyone to go to university. Today, vocational schools can become the basis for rebuilding the country – a place where real professions are born: from electricians to drone technicians.
But this requires updating the content. 82% of teachers consider the current programs ineffective, and some of the professions in demand are not listed at all.
English is another bottleneck. According to our survey (GoGlobal, FCA, 2025), 82.6% of students have Pre-A1 or A1 levels, while 69% of employers consider English to be critical and 81% of companies use English-language equipment. These two worlds do not intersect.
One example of a solution is the Career GPS program, which combines camps, mentoring, testing, individualized educational trajectories, and project work. Career guidance is not a single lesson. It is an ecosystem of choice. And it should become the norm, not the exception .
What needs to be changed systematically?
Today, career guidance is a field where everyone plays for themselves. The Ministry of Education and Science deals with schools, the Ministry of Youth with events, and the Ministry of Economy with the labor market. But a teenager is not divided into "educational" and "youth" parts. He is one person with a lot of questions and a need for answers .
And we need it now:
adopt a single interagency youth employment strategy;
create regional hubs based on vocational schools and schools with mentoring, English, and project-based learning;
invest in career counseling as a service, not as a "classroom teacher function".
While we give up the career counselor's rate, Poland gets our future engineer.
While we postpone funding for vocational schools, businesses are importing personnel from abroad.
While we are silent, young people are speaking: "There is nothing for me here".
Therefore, we have only two options. Either we create routes. Or we lose a generation.
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