OSCE helps discharged Ukrainian military find new job opportunities

NIZHYN, Ukraine, 4 September 2007 - Former military staff are primed to find new work in the civilian sector thanks to a project to retrain and provide job assistance to discharged military personnel supported by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine.

"This project, and especially this type of retraining, provides important assistance to the Ukrainian Defence Ministry in helping personnel who have been discharged from the Armed Forces as a result of the ongoing reform process," said Ambassador James F. Schumaker, OSCE Project Co-ordinator.

The latest graduates of the programme - two crews comprising six helicopter pilots and ten engineers - have been retrained to help boost Ukraine's emergency response under the Ministry of Emergency Situations. They will fly and service Mi-8 helicopters, used for search and rescue missions.

The crews underwent a three-month retraining programme, which included studying at the Slovyansk College of the National Aviation University and International Aviation Centre in Kyiv, as well as practical training and flight practice at DniproAviaService and Nizhyn Special Aviation Division of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

"The Defence Ministry strongly supports this joint initiative," said Igor Kholosha, Director of the Ministry's Department for Adaptation of Discharged Military Servicepersons and Conversion of Former Military Facilities.

He added that the ministry hoped for further expansion of the project as interest in retraining exceeded the number of available places in the training programme.

The project, funded by the U.S. and Finnish Missions to the OSCE and the OSCE Project Co-ordinator, last year helped to retrain some 852 military servicepersons in 18 civilian fields, in 22 cities throughout Ukraine. Over 78 per cent of the graduates subsequently found employment. This year, more than 900 military servicepersons are expected to be retrained under the project. These figures render the project the biggest and most wide-spread international resettlement initiative to currently exist in Ukraine.