Lack of specialists affecting country’s defence capability. What to do?
Ukraine suffers from a shortage of personnel. The shortage of specialists is felt everywhere - both at the front and in the rear. First of all, defence companies suffer from this. The required specialists are either already working, mobilised or have gone abroad. However, the problem is complex and did not appear yesterday. The Great War simply elevated it to an absolute.
The 2025 admission campaign has once again illustrated disappointing statistics: applicants are hardly applying for engineering (G) and science (E) specialities - there is no competition in these areas, despite the fact that the state has significantly increased the number of state-funded places.
"There is a huge shortage of people in engineering. This is a highly paid job in good companies, mainly in defence. These are critical people for Ukraine's victory. It is much easier to enter than economics, where this year there are 31 applications for a place, but it is easier to get through and there are more prospects," comments Roman Hryshchuk, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Education, Science and Innovation.
According to Ihor Fedirko, executive director of the Ukrainian Council of Arms Manufacturers, there are currently more than 700 vacancies at a major defence company in Kyiv alone. "I have no idea where to get this amount of specialists on the market," he says.
Moreover, even students of specialised universities, such as KAI, KhAI, KPI and Lviv Polytechnic Institute, are working in the defence sector. The technical institutes have already been chosen. "Some people are working part-time in a technical speciality in some kind of drone or technology business in the defence sector," says Fedirko.
Involving students in production despite their lack of practical experience and in-depth knowledge has its advantages. There is no conscription until the age of 25, so companies don't have to worry about reservations and other related processes.
"You can invest in such an employee for the long term. He may make mistakes, but he can be turned into a qualified specialist and will stay at the company," says Ihor Fedirko.
But not everyone is ready to cooperate with students. For example, the drone manufacturer "Wild Hornets" says that students have limited time to work, so to close the full production cycle, they need to hire three times as many people. And there are already not enough of them.
BusinessCensor looked into why there is a shortage of personnel in the defence industry, where companies are looking for the right specialists, and how to overcome the crisis.
This material was published as part of the special project "Drone Industry" on Censor.NET. The editorial team is ready to cooperate with manufacturers and operators of unmanned aerial vehicles. If you have a story to tell, please write to email: [email protected]
The education system does not meet the needs
Kseniia Semenova, Acting Rector of the "Kyiv Aviation Institute", sees two main reasons why applicants are not applying for engineering degrees today.
"The first is that physics and mathematics are taught very poorly at school. School leavers feel insecure in these subjects and are afraid that there will be a lot of physics and maths later in higher education, so they choose study programmes with fewer of these subjects. And the second reason is that the general public does not understand that engineering professions are in great demand and that salaries are high," she says.
According to Denys Chumachenko, technical director of DEVIRO, a drone manufacturing company, there has been a strong belief in society since Soviet times that engineers are poor people whose skills are not needed in the modern world.
"After gaining independence, our country needed lawyers, economists and marketing specialists more than engineers and technologists. It was not profitable to invest in the developments and ideas of domestic specialists, and we were constantly told that Western technologies were more modern and reliable. All this led to the decline of the national scientific school for decades," he comments.
Chumachenko asks a simple question that explains a lot - when was the last time school teachers of the same physics class changed?
"Probably 10 years ago, at least. And university professors have been teaching for 15 years or more. This is another global problem: universities teach what teachers know and can do, not what the drone industry needs now, for example. It is necessary to create new government orders for specialists, given the reality that we need engineers and IT specialists more than ever. The Ministry of Education should bring the positions of educators and defence companies closer together in building a new curriculum. In simple terms, today we need to teach more about the specialities that will be needed for the country's defence tomorrow," says Denys Chumachenko.
Vitalii Zaitsev, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, co-founder and Chairman of the Board of the "Science Parks" Research Cluster" Civil Association, expresses a similar opinion:
"Engineering specialities require knowledge not of the history of Ukraine, the Ukrainian language, and literature. You need knowledge of mathematics, physics, and the hard sciences. And we don't even teach drawing at school, whereas abroad, for example, in Austria, children learn 3D modelling."
Due to the lack of interest in the hard and natural sciences, applicants avoid them. This will also lead to a reduction in the workload of university professors and, as a result, a reduction in teaching staff. In other words, there is no one to study and no one to teach. Moreover, there is nothing to teach with - there is a lack of quality textbooks in Ukrainian and equipment.
"We do not have a state programme to promote engineering specialities," Vitalii Zaitsev emphasises.
Kseniia Semenova adds that society lacks an understanding of the need for and importance of engineering specialities.
"From time to time, I come across an opinion on social media that after the war is over, in the next four years, it is unclear what will happen to the demand for engineers, as the defence sector will shut down. However, it will obviously only grow, if only because arms exports will be open. And even after the war, the borders will be open, and our engineers will be available to the global labour market - all major arms-producing countries will be available for work," she explains.
Despite the decline in demand in the IT market, applicants continue to enter the industry on a massive scale. For example, this year there are six applications for one place in Computer Science (F). Vitalii Zaitsev attributes this, among other things, to promotion.
"If children hear it everywhere that IT is cool, they will go there. Although for the most part, IT is not engineering. How many times have you heard machine-building companies shouting out from every speaker that they need people? They are just starting now," says the professor.
According to him, it is necessary to create state programmes to support engineering education and career guidance, which would begin not in the final year of school, but in advance.
"The university cannot do it alone. It cannot do it without employers, without the involvement of schools, without government policy. Until this happens, we will have a nightmare. And now we have what we have," Vitalii Zaitsev emphasises.
Are companies ready to invest in staff?
Ksenia Semenova believes that the fact that university students are involved in production is not always a good thing.
"In addition to low-skilled personnel, who can simply sit and solder something, and who can be recruited from people without a university degree, there is a demand for highly qualified personnel, i.e. people with a fundamental education in physics, mathematics, material strength, aerodynamics, high-frequency signal physics, etc.", she says.
According to Semenova, companies are often not ready to invest in staff for the long term and generally plan to work for a maximum of a year, as they rely on government orders in the face of the de facto export ban. That's why businesses are mostly not ready to pay large scholarships for students to study engineering.
"There is a good example at the Kyiv School of Economics - a scholarship in mathematics. This is private American money. But Ukrainian defence companies are primarily interested in this. After all, if there are no people who study physics, mathematics and everything related to it in depth, to a scientific level, we will not have any competitive advantage in our technologies. We are now considered a super-technological power, but this is because of the speed of implementation of solutions. If you look at the technology, if our weapons, our drones have any advantages, it turns out that the scientific inventions inside these means of warfare are no better than those of other countries," explains the acting rector of the KAI.
Indeed, business support for engineering students is not a widespread story. However, businesses, realising the importance of such scarce specialists, are already getting involved in staff training.
"Our company would like to hire experienced engineers for a decent salary, but this is impossible - there are simply no more of them on the labour market. The specialists we need are either already working somewhere, serving, or have moved abroad. Our company has made a strategic decision to play the long game by educating our own specialists. For several years now, we have been cooperating with the Ukrainian Catholic University, helping a group of students and providing them with all the necessary practical experience. Of course, we run the risk that in a few years these young people, trained and experienced, will be able to leave to work for another company or even go abroad, but we hope that the future defence capability of our country will be in the safe hands of the younger generation of engineers," Denys Chumachenko, Technical Director of DEVIRO manufacturing company, told BusinessCensor.
Professor Vitalii Zaitsev also suggests focusing on science parks.
"Through the involvement of universities, through mechanisms for attracting business, through mechanisms for supporting engineering and scientific teams that carry out specific projects, we can also attract students and young people and pull them in this direction. A science park is an association of scientific institutions and businesses, and it is about training, joint research, generating projects that businesses need and, accordingly, solving urgent problems," he emphasises.
Ksenia Semenova says that military decision-makers also lack technical and natural science education:
"Ukrainian developments are not tested in accordance with electromagnetic compatibility standards. Heads put their signatures in documents that everything is fine because they do not understand the importance of such research. Over time, various countermeasures create interference. And our communications are cut off by our own drones or ground robotic systems. Units request the university to "make us a connection that doesn't fail", but they jam it themselves. Today, good engineers with knowledge of physics should be involved in decision-making at the frontline. But where can we get enough of them?"
The industry needs women
Semenova also points out that Ukraine is heavily dependent on international partners for the means of warfare:
"We are currently purchasing all high-precision equipment abroad. We do not produce our own air defence systems, precision guided missiles, combat aircraft. We mass-produce only drones."
However, drone manufacturers say that due to a lack of staff, production volumes are already falling.
"In recent months, the market has seen a growing shortage of not only skilled but also unskilled personnel. This leads to higher wages and higher production costs for the Armed Forces, including drones. This shortage causes problems with scaling up production, and as a result, we have insufficient supply of drones to the army. That is, due to the difficulty of finding employees and time for training, while having the funds to scale up and stock spare parts, the growth of drone production is slowed down," explains "Wild Hornets".
The main reason for this is problems with the military registration documents of candidates for positions. Since companies cannot officially employ such people, the search for a motivated candidate who will pass a polygraph and have a "Reserve+" in order is significantly delayed.
Draft law No. 13335 has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada, which stipulates that men who are not registered with the territorial recruitment centres (TRCs), have improperly executed military registration documents or are wanted, can be hired and given reservations at critical enterprises, including those in the defence industry.
However, this possibility will only apply temporarily - for up to 45 calendar days from the date of the employment contract and no more than once a year.
The Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security recommended the draft law for the first reading, but the Ministry of Defence opposed it, calling the document "unacceptable".
The "Wild Hornets" are convinced that such a law or a corresponding resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers would significantly improve the situation with the staff shortage.
"It also makes sense to allow men who have left the country to return to Ukraine without sanctions and mobilisation with mandatory employment at a defence enterprise," says one of the founders of the "Wild Hornets" project.
Another way to overcome the staff shortage could be to increase the share of women employees.
"At the moment, miltech is not attractive enough for women, as it is considered to be a male profession. However, women perform many of the functions, such as assembly, soldering and firmware, more diligently," says "Wild Hornets".
Ihor Fedirko of the Ukrainian Council of Arms Manufacturers says that women are beginning to actively retrain and enter the technical industry. This is beneficial for companies, because women do not need to be reserved.
"If there are no orders, the company is idle and the reservation is cancelled. And the list of employees is available in the TRC, and they know when the reservation ends because they are doing their job. So the team goes to serve," he says, urging women and young people to learn technical specialities.
We need to invest in science
One of the founders of the "Wild Hornets" project argues that the problem of staff shortages is on a par with the lack of working capital and the lack of suitable production sites:
"In this respect, we are losing out to the Russians, who are building entire production cities for tens of thousands of workers."
Kseniia Semenova, acting rector of the KAI, emphasises that we need to invest a lot in science now, because we have already invented everything that could be "invented in a garage".
"We started using a lot of FPV - Russia started doing it. We started using fibre-optic drones to overcome EWs - Russia has started doing it on a massive scale. That is, Russia will still crush us in numbers. It is more difficult to copy knowledge-intensive, intellectual things. We have problems with this, because some time ago, our defence technology science was lost," she says.
Semenova points out that no technical university in Ukraine has modern research infrastructure for defence research.
"We have only one thermal barocheter at our university from the Soviet era, which was updated a long time ago with a German grant and now needs to be improved again. KAI and KhAI have wind tunnels, but they are so energy-intensive that it is not profitable to use them. An anechoic chamber in the radio frequency range is a rarity, available at the radio frequency centre near Kyiv or in private companies. High-precision measuring equipment - used equipment was given to universities by partners almost 100 years ago. This is a problem," she says.
"We have not been doing this for a long time. We have created a big problem for ourselves. And unfortunately, it will not be possible to solve it quickly," sums up Vitalii Zaitsev, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor.
