08.04.2025
On March 20, 2025, Energy Club, in partnership with the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine, held an online meeting dedicated to the critically important topic of human resources for energy sustainability of communities. The event brought together representatives of central government, local governments, leading experts in the energy industry, and representatives of the educational sector to find ways to solve pressing problems and determine strategic priorities.
Opening the meeting, Energy Club Vice President Valeriy Bezus emphasized the relevance of the issue in the context of decentralization and challenges caused by the war: “Most communities that have already faced the challenges of ensuring energy sustainability have also experienced problems related to staffing. The demand for high-quality, qualified personnel will grow in every community.”
He also spoke about Energy Club’s initiatives in the direction of supporting communities: “We at Energy Club are trying to make efforts, and are already implementing two courses on energy sustainability, distributed generation, and energy efficiency in a pilot mode.”
Oleksandr Aziukovskyy, Rector of the National Technical University “Dnipro Polytechnic”, emphasized the key role of education in shaping the human resource potential of the energy industry. He called for increased cooperation between universities and employers to ensure that educational programs meet the needs of the labor market: “If a student leaves the university without the necessary knowledge, this does not indicate his shortcomings, but that the education system needs improvement.”
The Rector also noted the positive experience of cooperation between Ukrainian universities with foreign partners: “We have positive examples of cooperation with foreign partners, and our graduates successfully compete in the labor market in the countries of the European Union.”
In addition, Mr. Aziukovsky stressed the importance of gender equality in the energy sector, noting the high potential of women in this area: “It is women who are able to work effectively with a large amount of information… digitalization opens up new opportunities, including for women in the energy sector.”
The critical situation in the energy sector and the acute shortage of qualified personnel was discussed by Yuriy Bondarenko, Vice President of the National Committee of the International Council on Large Electric Power Systems “CIGRE-Ukraine”, General Director of LLC “NTK ENPASELEKTRO”: “Almost two-thirds of the energy system has been destroyed by the enemy…
The situation with personnel is the most difficult problem we face today in our country.”
He called for urgent measures to retrain specialists and reform the education system: “We need to review the concept of education in schools and determine how we train future energy engineers.”
The discussion was joined by Dolyna Mayor Ivan Dyriv, who shared his community’s practical experience in implementing energy efficiency projects.
He emphasized the difficulties that local governments face in implementing energy initiatives: “Unfortunately, we do not always have enough trained specialists to formulate a clear technical task for integrating the community into the overall energy system.”
At the same time, Mr. Dyriv expressed his willingness to share his experience with other communities: “I am ready to share my modest experience… please, I am ready to cooperate,” and called on local governments to actively participate in the process of ensuring the energy sustainability of their territories.
Deputy Director of the Ligret Group of Companies Volodymyr Gromko emphasized that the urgent problem is the reservation of specialists in the energy sector: “If the fighting continues, the problem with personnel will only worsen.”
He also drew attention to the problem of the outflow of young specialists abroad and the low level of wages in the industry: “Unfortunately, salaries in this area are often meager, which makes it difficult to attract and retain qualified employees.”
The participants of the meeting were unanimous in the fact that solving the problem of human resource provision for energy sustainability of communities requires a comprehensive approach and the joining of efforts of all stakeholders.
Following the discussion, it was decided to address the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine with specific proposals on optimizing personnel training for the energy industry. Energy Club plans to continue a series of thematic meetings and initiate the development of practical recommendations for communities to promote their energy self-sufficiency and sustainable development.
