The plumbing profession first appeared at the Zhytomyr Vocational Education Centre in 2017. Back then, the school received a was licenced to train plumbers, and the following year the first call for announced was announced. At the same time, the Centre joined the second phase of the Public-Private Partnership for Improved Plumbing Education in Ukraine (EdUP) project.
“The fact that we started participating in the EdUP project immediately after the launch of the professional certification had a great impact on the course of events. After all, we have all the tools for comprehensive development: from the logistical background to the methodological support of teachers and masters of vocational training,” says
What results were achieved during the second phase of the project? Here what we have to say.
About the progress in the profession.
The first enrolment for the profession of “Installer of sanitary systems and equipment” was taken place among schoolchildren completing their 11th grade. Afterwards the Centre recruited students for several years in a row, but since the pandemic began, it was unable to assemble a group.
“With the start of the enrollment campaign, there was a lot of career guidance and advertising of the Centre among local schools. There were still people who wanted to study plumbing, but we failed to recruit at least 25 people to form a group. We tried to find out why this happened and worked on the mistakes. For example, we increased the licensing framework and started recruiting graduates after the 9th grade, adults. We integrated the profession of plumber with the profession of electric and gas welder. Having done so, we gradually restored and increased the number of students,” Lyudmyla Lyubchenko says.
Adult training is a paid service. At present, it is not that popular, but occasionally adults apply to take the course. After completing the course, graduates receive a document certifying them as plumbers.
“Thanks to the EdUP Project, we managed to create a very high-quality training centre. In Zhytomyr region, there are two other educational institutions that train plumbers besides us. I can confidently say that our hands-on facilities are among the best. This fact makes us competitive and adds to our attractiveness both for school graduates and adults. When guests look at the workshops during Open Doors and other public events, they get the impression that the level of training is particularly high here,” the Deputy Director explains.
About the professional skills competition
The Zhytomyr Vocational Education Centre became the first VET school in 2023 to hold a professional skills competition among plumbers.
“The students missed communication, classroom work, and competitions. Both the competition itself and informal networking with experts from plumbing companies leave a lot of positive impressions on the participants. A few years ago, the students went on a trip to the Geberit ceramic plant in Slavuta, Khmelnytsky Oblast. Even that short business trip left a lot of emotions, and they shared their impressions for a long time. The current prize of the professional skills competition – a trip to Austria – is a huge motivator for the youngsters. It is not just about travelling abroad to a beautiful tourist city. It is an opportunity to see the production from the inside, to gain professional experience that even experienced professionals dream of,” Lyudmila says.
The competition will last until 30 May among students who are studying to become an installer of sanitary systems and equipment at the VET schools participating in the EdUP Project.
About the training of vocational instructors
The VET school considers regular and systematic training of vocational instructors and teachers, one of the biggest achievements of the project. Thanks to the involvement of field experts from companies that manufacture plumbing and heating products, as well as professional installers, combined with practical modules with hands-on approach, teachers can be better prepared to educate students and share up-to-date knowledge.
This year, a new vocational instructor from the Zhytomyr institution attended the two-day EdUP conference in January. He was very impressed with the organisation and the content of the event.
“The project does everything possible to ensure that the masters are aware of new products, have energy and a desire to give their best to their students. I really like the multi-day conferences and wish there were more of them,” Lyudmyla said.
What’s yet to be done?
“When the project started for us, in fact, this train was already moving and we just jumped on it. However, the atmosphere of the team, the desire to work and help us promote the profession, immediately captured our attention. Society still has prejudices against the work of plumbers. It’s cool and promising that such projects help change attitudes towards the profession,” the deputy quoted as saying.
She also believes that despite the large number of training events for teachers and school managers, there is a still a lot of work to be done in the future.
“Even the educational system is gradually moving towards market relations. As a deputy director, I lack information about modern approaches to the provision of educational services. How can I make the training centre self-sustaining? How do we promote the plumbing profession so that people buy from us paid courses? How to expand partnerships with businesses, in particular, how to formalise this process? Today, we have a social partner and we don’t want to lose this cooperation, but we don’t know how to increase it. It is useful to learn real-life examples: how social partnership works in a big city, and even more interestingly, in small communities where there are no large plumbing companies or even representative offices of plumbing companies. We understand that this approach is the future, therefore we expect that EdUP will contribute to the training of VET schools leadership on public-private partnership,” Lyubchenko concluded.
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The Public-Private Partnership to Improved Plumbing Education (EdUP) is a project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, in partnership with Geberit Trading LLC, implemented by Swisscontact Foundation for Technical Cooperation and supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.