Oleksandr Kotukov: “Every veteran has the right to receive a voucher for training up to UAH 30,000”

In Kharkiv Media Hub, a briefing was held on the topic: “Employment service aid for combatants: employment, grant, training voucher.” The speaker was Oleksandr Kotukov, director of the Kharkiv Regional Employment Center (KhREC).

The director of the KhREC noted that one of the priority directions of the institution in 2024 is comprehensive assistance to demobilized defenders of Ukraine and their adaptation to civilian life:

“Today, we have created all the conditions for effortless registration of the unemployed. Relevant applications can be submitted in person to the territorial divisions of the employment service or through the Unified portal of the service service ‘Diya’, as well as through the personal electronic account of the job seeker on the website of the State Employment Center.”

Oleksandr Kotukov said that the Kharkiv Regional Employment Center currently offers about one and a half thousand vacancies located in the region, which are decent in terms of wages. So, for example, the vacancy of a vehicle driver provides a 30 thousand UAH salary, an engineer for labor protection – 24 thousand UAH, and a milling operator – 25 thousand UAH.

“We offer everyone who applies to us to visit the Unified State Job Portal, where there are over 200,000 job offers throughout Ukraine. There you can find a job with many social benefits,” said the director of the KhREC.

In addition, territorial divisions of the employment center offer temporary employment to their clients. In 2023, the Kharkiv region became a leader in the organization of community service. Currently, in 2024, 1,500 referrals for this type of work were issued, which enables the unemployed to receive about ten thousand hryvnias per month.

The Kharkiv Regional Employment Center also carries out measures for social and psychological support of demobilized persons. As part of the State mental health program “Ty yak?” (“How are you?”) the Mental Health Center was opened at the address:

Kharkiv, str. Shevchenko, 137a, where you can get psychological help every Friday from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

“An important direction that we implement today is the provision of guarantees for the creation or development of one’s own business. Within the framework of the ‘E-Robota’ project, we implement two programs: ‘Own Business’ and ‘Grant for veterans and their spouses'”, Oleksandr Kotukov noted.

The main idea of these programs is to start or expand a business. The size of the grant for a participant in hostilities or a person who received a disability as a result of hostilities is up to UAH 250,000 in the case of the creation of one workplace. When creating two jobs – from 250 to 500 thousand UAH; four seats – from 500,000 to 1 million. For a family member of a combatant, the amount of the grant reaches from 250 to 500,000 UAH. To date, there are 15 applications received from veterans and their family members. Five applications have already been approved.

In addition, the KhREC offers various programs to support combatants. According to the head of the institution, every veteran has the right to receive a study voucher of up to UAH 30,000 for obtaining a second education or advanced training.

 Oleksandr Kotukov also said that all unemployed people can undergo training in specialized education centers of the Kharkiv Regional Employment Center.

“At the moment, retraining is being carried out in 36 professions in 39 educational programs of professional development,” the speaker said.

At the end of the speech, the director of the KhREC said that the head of the State Employment Center recently signed a memorandum with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, which stipulated the implementation of several measures aimed at supporting veterans and will be implemented in the Kharkiv region.

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news