How civil drone operators will be trained in colleges of seven oblasts

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In 2024, seven vocational and technical schools of Ukraine joined pilot project, within the framework of which a new educational program – “Civil drone operator” is being introduced. The EU representation helps Ukrainian educators with its implementation.

“Drones are used in many professions. This qualification, this competence is developing a lot. For example, in construction, agricultural sector, topography.

Many use drones in the cinema or journalists. That is why such skills are introduced in many professions.” – reported Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine for Digital Development, Digital Transformations and Digitalization Dmytro Zavhorodnii.

According to him, the colleges where the students will be the first to master the new profession have already received drones and other material equipment necessary for training. And the teachers were trained to be drone operators, as well as how to teach this profession.

“These are different drones – and DJI mavic, which is used the most, are agricultural drones, larger ones that can be used to spray the field and perform many other tasks.

Therefore, the pilot institutions are fully equipped with the necessary equipment and skills to teach.” said the deputy minister.

The pilot project will currently be implemented in Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions.

The official noted that there are other institutions that are gradually introducing such courses: both in the format of group work and in the format of advanced training for adults, who can come to this module for drone operators.

“There is not always a complete set of everything there, but we are working on it and will continue to spread this practice, as we see how popular and useful it is.” – he noted.

Dmytro Zavhorodnyi also explained that the skills of the civil drone operator are provided precisely for their use in accordance with their profession. For example, a construction institution will train operators to perform exactly those tasks that are related to the field of construction.

But soon, teenagers in Ukraine will also be able to master the control of military drones, for example, FPV. According to the deputy minister, from September this will be included in the general education program “Defense of Ukraine”: the management of the BpLA will be taught to all those seeking education in schools, vocational technical education institutions, and colleges.

Before Dmytro Zavhorodniy told how high-quality vocational education can solve the shortage of personnel for the reconstruction of the country.