As Ukraine rebuilds its energy infrastructure following massive attacks, another problem is becoming increasingly apparent — the shortage of skilled personnel. The issue is not simply a lack of workers, but a shortage of professionals capable of working with complex infrastructure under constant risk and with a high level of responsibility.
According to data from the State Employment Service and the Unified Job Vacancies Portal, at the beginning of 2026, the number of vacancies in the energy sector was several times higher than the number of candidates. In some regions, the situation is even more acute: in Kyiv, the ratio of vacancies to job seekers in the energy sector reached 39 to 1. And this is more than a labor market issue. It is a matter of the country’s energy resilience.
The Energy Sector Lacks Not Equipment, but People
Ukraine’s energy sector today relies heavily on professionals with many years of experience. However, the industry’s workforce is rapidly aging. Some professionals are retiring, while others have moved abroad or shifted to other areas of work. At the same time, young people are increasingly less likely to choose the energy sector as a career.
The reason is not only salaries. Young professionals often perceive the energy sector as a complex, physically demanding, and hazardous field involving night shifts, emergency call-outs, and high levels of stress. Against this backdrop, the IT sector, service companies, and creative industries appear significantly more attractive.
But the problem runs deeper. The energy sector is an industry where people cannot be replaced quickly. Expertise is accumulated over many years. A single specialist often carries critical responsibilities that cannot be transferred after just a few weeks of training. As a result, the workload on teams increases, while the risk of professional burnout becomes systemic.
Knowledge That Could Be Lost with a Generation
Today, Ukraine already has professions where the shortage of skilled personnel is becoming critical. For example, the restoration of combined heat and power (CHP) plants requires turbine engineers — specialists who work with turbine equipment and possess highly specialized expertise. Only a few such specialists remain in Ukraine, most of them older professionals. Their expertise has been built over decades, but increasingly, there is simply no one left to pass that knowledge on to.
The war has only intensified this pressure. Emergency repair and restoration crews work at night and in challenging weather conditions, sometimes in the vicinity of facilities that remain at risk of further attacks. The psychological strain associated with this work is immense, as it involves responsibility for ensuring electricity and heat supply to cities, hospitals, and critical infrastructure.
The intensity of work in the energy sector has increased significantly in recent years. In many companies, teams are effectively working without days off, remaining on constant standby for emergency call-outs and restoration work. This is exhausting even for experienced specialists, while for younger professionals, it can often seem like a career that comes at an excessively high personal cost.
The government has already responded to the issue through targeted measures, including additional payments for employees of emergency repair and restoration crews. However, this is not enough from a strategic perspective. The main challenge is the lack of a systematic approach to training and developing the next generation of specialists.
Today, a significant portion of the training costs for young specialists effectively falls on the companies themselves. This is particularly challenging in an environment where the market operates under the strain of debt, constrained investment, and ongoing expenditure on infrastructure restoration.
Training in the energy sector is about more than theory. It also requires the time of an experienced specialist, whose productivity is reduced because they are simultaneously training a younger employee. In other words, the company pays for the time of both the mentor and the trainee, as well as the additional time required to complete the tasks.
And this brings us to another issue — the public procurement system. If the key criterion for winning a tender remains the lowest price alone, companies that systematically invest in training and developing young specialists are automatically placed at a disadvantage, because their costs are objectively higher.
Some Ukrainian companies are already taking steps to address the shortage of skilled personnel themselves. They are launching internal mentorship programs, partnering with vocational education institutions, and providing on-site training for young specialists. For example, at the ENERGO-PLUS engineering and industrial consortium, young specialists receive hands-on training alongside the company’s experienced engineers. However, today such investments remain largely the responsibility of businesses themselves rather than being part of a systematic government policy.
Such practices are only beginning to scale up in Ukraine. According to a study by the KSE Institute and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, only 1.4% of Ukrainian companies are engaged in dual education, compared with an EU average of 32.4%. For comparison, in Germany, dual education is an integral part of the country’s economic model. Around 400,000 companies participate in the training of young specialists, while businesses are incentivized to invest in workforce development as part of their long-term economic resilience.
Ukraine is also gradually moving in this direction. However, the shortage of skilled personnel in the energy sector has already become so severe that it requires much faster solutions.
The Race for Young Talent Will Shape the Future of the Energy Sector
Today, the energy sector is a high-tech industry where the role of automation, digital control systems, distributed generation, energy storage systems, and smart grid solutions is becoming increasingly important. And if the industry is to compete for young talent, it must not only raise salaries but also transform the way the profession itself is perceived.
Without systematic investment in people, no energy sector recovery can be sustainable. The power system is not just substations, grids, or generation assets. Above all, it is the people who keep it running every day.
Author: Yevhen Korf, CEO of NVP ENERGO-PLUS LLC.
Source: Energo Business.
