15.09.2026
Iryna Dmytrotsa, Advisor to the President of Energy Club and an expert in energy project development and business planning, presented an initiative to establish the Energy Club Academy — a joint educational platform designed to bring together the practical expertise of the Club’s member companies.
She presented the initiative during the online meeting “Business and Universities: How to Prepare Professionals for Ukraine’s Energy Sector Together”, held by Energy Club on 14 September as part of the Energy Freedom talk show.
According to Dmytrotsa, Ukraine’s energy sector is facing more than a general shortage of employees. An equally serious challenge is the lack of people with the qualifications required to work effectively in today’s energy market.
“The problem today is not only the number of people available, but also whether they have the necessary qualifications. We need professionals who understand the modern energy market, know how it works in theory and are able to operate in it in practice,” she said.
Ukraine’s current electricity market model has been in place since 2019, but its rules and operating conditions continue to evolve. Even experienced employees of energy companies must constantly update their knowledge. In these circumstances, university programmes do not always keep pace with the processes that professionals encounter in their daily work.
This gap is particularly evident in energy trading, consumption and generation forecasting, balancing, imbalance management and trading portfolio management. As a result, companies have to train new employees themselves, transfer knowledge internally and invest considerable time in preparing specialists for their roles.
Dmytrotsa also referred to her own professional experience. She trained as an electrical engineer, but, like many other professionals, had to acquire most of her practical knowledge after she had already begun working.
“At university, I mainly received technical knowledge about the energy sector, but I did not gain practical experience. I had to learn all of that after I started working,” she explained.
This is why she believes Energy Club can play an important role in developing a practical system for training energy professionals. The Club’s member companies employ experienced traders, analysts, engineers, lawyers, financial professionals, regulatory experts, energy storage specialists and professionals from many other fields. Their knowledge can be brought together in a structured programme and shared with both young specialists and employees who want to move into a new professional area.
The central principle of the Energy Club Academy is that it should not become another purely theoretical course. The future programme is intended to focus on real working processes, practical cases, common mistakes and solutions already being used by energy companies.
Each interested company will be able to propose one or more relevant topics and, where possible, nominate an expert to deliver the corresponding training module. In return, its employees will gain access to the entire programme and to the expertise contributed by the other participants.
“It would be difficult and expensive for an individual company to obtain such a broad range of practical knowledge on its own. Under this model, every company can contribute its expertise, while its employees gain access to a much wider professional environment,” Dmytrotsa explained.
Energy Club also intends to involve universities in developing the programme. Under the proposed model, higher education institutions would provide students and participants with fundamental technical and economic knowledge, while company experts would demonstrate how this knowledge is applied in real working conditions.
“A university provides students with fundamental knowledge of energy and economics, while Energy Club experts can show them how the electricity market actually operates, how forecasting is carried out, how imbalances are managed and how energy trading works. In other words, it combines theory with real-world practice,” she emphasised.
The first focus of the Energy Club Academy could be the practical training of energy trading professionals. The course is expected to be delivered online in a private format for employees of Energy Club member companies. It could benefit both young specialists and experienced employees seeking to broaden their competencies or move into a different area of work.
The programme could cover the principles of electricity market operation, trading on the day-ahead and intraday markets, forecasting, imbalance management, trading portfolio development, market analysis, risk management and practical cases contributed by companies.
The final course content has not yet been determined. Energy Club is surveying its member companies and collecting their proposals regarding topics, competencies and the most appropriate training format. The programme will be shaped by the actual needs of employers rather than by an abstract list of academic subjects.
Dmytrotsa invited representatives of businesses and universities to determine jointly which technologies the sector already uses, which competencies companies need today, which professions may emerge over the next three to five years and how university curricula should be updated.
“Today, we should not merely discuss the shortage of qualified professionals — we must create a mechanism to address it. Energy Club is inviting companies and universities to help build such a mechanism for the future of Ukraine’s energy sector,” Iryna Dmytrotsa concluded.
