OSCE project in Ukraine helps military officers acquire new skills to find jobs

KYIV, 15 December 2005 - Sixty Ukrainian military officers graduated today in the city of Khmelnytskyi after completing OSCE courses, designed to help them develop new professional skills.

"As part of the ongoing reform of the country's Armed Forces, some 40,000 persons have been discharged this year alone," said Ambasssador James Schumaker, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine. "Those officers who take our courses are eligible for employment assistance, both during their 500 hours of classroom time, and after graduation."

The retraining of discharged or soon to be discharged military officers is being provided at the request of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry, and is part of a joint project between the OSCE Project Co-ordinator and the Ministry entitled 'Assisting in Social Adaptation of Discharged Military Personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine'.

"More than 400 officers have undergone retraining this year, and about 80 percent of the graduates were able to find employment within three months," added Ambassador Schumaker.

The retraining takes place in regions containing high numbers of disbanded military garrisons, such as Chernihiv, Chernivtsi, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Odesa, Sevastopol, Uzhgorod, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, and the capital, Kyiv.

In 2006, the Project Co-ordinator plans to extend retraining opportunities to other regions of Ukraine.