Enhancing skills through Public Private Partnerships in education in Ukraine: The case of agribusiness
Enhancing skills in Ukraine’s agribusiness sector is a key policy priority to improve productivity and attract more domestic and foreign investment. The country still faces difficulties in recruiting adequately skilled technical workers in the agribusiness sector. When firms are unable to find workers with the right skill sets, their productivity decreases, ultimately hindering their competitiveness. The Sector Competitiveness Strategy of Ukraine report (OECD, 2012a) identified the skills gap as an important barrier to investment in agribusiness. This report focuses on the improvement of internship schemes in Ukraine’s agricultural universities, as one application of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in education to leverage private capacity and specialised expertise while sharing costs. This is an example of PPPs in education which could fit the Ukrainian country-specific context and, if properly managed, could offer recognised benefits and increase private involvement in education. This policy option could be implemented in the short term while more sophisticated forms of PPPs, such as specialised schools, could be developed in the longer run.