To Rebuild Ukraine: Why People of Different Professions Are Mastering Construction Professions

The Trade Union of Builders of Ukraine (Profbud) has taken up this need by organising short free two-week courses in Kyiv. The main objective is to help learn or improve skills in demand in the labour market. Several teams have already gone to work for construction companies. However, not only professionals, but also people with different motivations come to learn the skills of plasterers, electricians, or tilers. Among them are women, immigrants, veterans, or former office workers. Socportal writes about whether it is possible to learn to be a builder in a fortnight, where to look for a job afterward, and who can do the job.

Why women and migrants go on construction courses

The full-scale war left thousands of people unemployed — especially in the eastern regions, where there were traditionally many miners or metallurgists. Once in the western regions as migrants, they could not find work in their former speciality. At the same time, the country needed accelerated reconstruction of housing and infrastructure. Therefore, the first construction courses organised in 2022 in Khmelnytskyi region were oriented towards this new wave of participants, mostly men with industrial experience.

Mostly people from the eastern regions who fled the war — miners, metallurgists — came to us. They could not find work in their profession. We thought: why not teach them what they need to rebuild Ukraine," says Galina Bondarchuk, organiser of the free courses at Profbud.

Later, the construction hub moved to Kyiv. Now the premises equipped for practical training are located near the Lybidska metro station, and the circle of those interested has expanded considerably.

Veterans are looking for a useful hobby to restore their peace of mind, people with higher education facing unemployment, women IDPs or military wives who now have to change sockets or do screening on their own. For example, a 65-year-old displaced woman decided to renovate her rented house on her own.

She came to the ad and said: "I found myself in a house in the village, it needs to be maintained, I need to learn how to do it," says the course organiser.

According to Galyna Bondarchuk, in a few months, this trainee completed three different courses: plasterer, tiler, and plasterboard installer. Although she will not go to the construction team, her knowledge came in handy for her own home.

Now there is a war, people are losing their homes, people are moving. Not always in good conditions. And such courses are a good addition, when people can learn something for free and do something for themselves," says Valentina Dzyailo, one of the master teachers.

Is it possible to master the construction trade in a fortnight?

Each course lasts only 2–3 weeks and consists of approximately 80 percent practical training. In just three years, about fifteen such courses have been organised in the most popular areas — from window installation and sparkling to tiling and electrical installation. Profbud buys the materials, often in co-operation with sponsors and companies who then plan to employ the graduates, and pays for the work of the teachers, some of whom also teach at the vocational schools.

The training is based on real objects: for example, a group of tilers tiled the porch of the training center as an exam. This ensures that the participants not only practice their skills, but also leave with a tangible result. Some participants of the course, who planned the renovation on their own and studied the process on YouTube, were finally able to try to do the planned work with their own hands at the hub. Without this, according to the organisers, real learning is impossible.

Many graduates then come back to take additional courses and expand their profile — for example, after receiving a certificate in electrician, a person goes to study to become a tiler and so learns a new specialty “for a complete set”. According to one of the trainees of the courses, they are ideal for those who have a main job, but also want to get additional skills and try themselves in something new.

In the photo: equipment for training electricians and the result of tilers' work

The trade union controls employment

The course was organised by the Construction Workers' Union, and its role is not limited to training. Newly graduated bricklayers and painters are immediately orientated on how to find a job and join a trade union.

We immediately tell about the trade union, about the duties at the first workplace, about official employment and labour protection, explains Galyna Bondarchuk.

Graduates are encouraged to join a trade union in order to remain under its protection. If an employer asks to recruit workers from among the graduates, the trade union sets strict conditions:

We don't give our union members away cheaply: only on condition of official employment and decent wages. We can come in at any time and check the working conditions.

Not all employers are enthusiastic about such support, but in conditions of staff starvation they have little choice. Some even agree to set up a trade union organisation at the company just to get a team of qualified workers.

The union has also succeeded in raising official wage rates by more than 130%, and the union intends to push for further improvements in working conditions.

Will Ukrainian women go to construction

Because of the shortage of personnel, construction work today pays quite high wages. According to the organisers, laying tiles, for example, brings a worker about 500 hryvnias per square meter — many times more than in typical “women's professions”. However, not everyone can withstand such a load.

Physically, construction remains hard — and this is the main barrier for women who want to work in this field.

Almost everything in our industry is physical labour, says the course organiser.

Laying bricks, plastering ceilings, carrying bags of cement — even with modern mechanisation, much has to be done manually. Although some operations like plastering walls can be done by machines. But technology is not yet able to completely remove the burden from a man.

You still have to carry bags with the mixture. They haven't invented a robot that would follow you with a bucket [of mortar]," Galina said.

According to her, girls in construction colleges are rather an exception. Especially since there are no benefits or special conditions for women in heavy labour.

Nevertheless, the success of individual trainees shows that, with the right motivation and support, women can learn construction skills on an equal footing with men. Course organisers recall how a team of young girls trained as electricians or tilers and are now able to use their skills in their homes. So far, however, it has been mostly men who have formed brigades for full-time work after the courses.

And at the same time, according to the trade union, after the war, the need for labourers will be so high that both men and women will go to construction sites en masse, despite the difficulties.

I think that when the fighting is over and the call to rebuild Ukraine begins, both women and men will awaken to heroism. We will probably all try our hand at construction, Galyna Bondarchuk predicts.