The full-scale war has forced thousands of Ukrainians to change professions due to job loss and forced displacement. In these circumstances, retraining for the technology sector has become the main tool for adapting to a new life.

However, quality IT education requires time and money, which not everyone has. To remove this barrier, Beetroot Academy Foundation launched the project SkillBoost Ukraine: Empowering Tech Careers. The initiative was implemented with funding from the Swedish Institute in cooperation with the Promprylad Foundation. Thanks to the program, 226 Ukrainians completed free online training over 18 months.

We explain how the program worked, who had the opportunity to change profession, and how graduates convert the knowledge they gained into real job offers.

How the learning process was organized

The main goal of SkillBoost Ukraine was to give people in difficult circumstances access to up-to-date professional education, and also to help specialists strengthen their own competencies for career growth.

The curriculum covered 9 areas currently in demand: Python Development, Front-End Development, QA, UI/UX Design, Project Management, HR & Recruitment, Business Analysis, Digital Marketing, and AI for Productivity.

Within the project, Beetroot Academy Foundation provided training in technical and non-technical areas for digital professions. The Promprylad Foundation developed the technical education direction on the basis of PROMTECH, its educational brand.

Training took place entirely online, so anyone interested from all corners of Ukraine could join: from major cities to small towns. Applicants chose their area themselves and went through a transparent competitive selection process.

The main emphasis was on practice: students mastered hard skills, completed real tasks, worked in teams, and received feedback from instructors who were practitioners. For beginners, these training projects became the basis of their first professional portfolio.

Who had the opportunity to study

Of the 226 enrolled students, 130 were in difficult life circumstances at the time of enrollment. Among the participants from priority categories were 37 relatives of military service members, as well as relatives of fallen or missing defenders.

The program’s affordability allowed these people to rebuild their career paths from scratch even when forced to relocate or having lost their main source of income.

What results SkillBoost Ukraine achieved

Of the 226 students, 207 successfully completed the program. For the online education segment, this is a high figure, indicating high student motivation and quality support from mentors.

134 graduates are already employed, while another 28 are actively job searching and interviewing. This figure covers different scenarios. Some participants changed professions and found new jobs after the courses; others used the skills they gained to get promoted or move into a new role at their current company.

52 of the 54 surveyed graduates rated the quality of teaching, materials, and feedback at 4 or 5 out of 5.

Real participant cases

A radical career change

Yuliia from Mykolaiv worked for more than 10 years with documentation for grain exports. Due to the full-scale invasion and the blockade of seaports, she lost her job and was forced to move to the Odesa region. Work at the Danube ports later also stopped, so she decided to radically change fields. She had good English, was good with people, and wanted to build a career in IT.

After learning about SkillBoost Ukraine in a chat for internally displaced persons, Yuliia was selected for the HR Generalist course. During the training, she learned HR processes, studied recruiting methods, and practiced on real cases.

“I received the invitation to the course right on my birthday. And after completing my studies, I went through several interviews and received an offer for the position of Junior HR Manager at SnoopGame, where I am successfully working now,” the graduate says.

Another participant in the program, also Yuliia, chose UI/UX Design. She completed the course in November 2025, and in early February 2026 she signed an offer for a designer position.

Interestingly, during the selection process, the employer did not even give her a test assignment. The portfolio of training projects created during the course and three interview stages—with a recruiter, a lead designer, and the company head—were enough to assess the candidate’s competencies.

Changing roles

The courses served two purposes: they helped beginners enter IT and gave an impetus for career growth to those already in the profession. A graduate of the Project Management course who had worked as an assistant moved after her studies into a coordinator position with a significantly broader range of responsibilities and a higher level of accountability.

A graduate of the Python Development track who works in the MilTech sector was able, thanks to the engineering skills he gained, to move into a more specialized technical role within his team, increasing his effectiveness for defense needs.

Why Sweden invests in training Ukrainian specialists

The project was implemented with funding from the Swedish Institute, a Swedish government agency. Supporting Ukraine’s economic resilience is a priority area of the country’s international policy. This is set out in Sweden’s Strategy for Cooperation in Recovery and Reforms for 2023–2027, which provides for promoting employment and labor market development.

In this context, quality professional education has a direct practical effect: it allows people to adapt their skills to new realities, maintain their families’ financial independence, and remain economically active.

For Beetroot Academy Foundation, cooperation with international donors is a systematic mechanism for expanding access to free digital education. Thanks to this support, the foundation combines social assistance to people affected by the war with training exactly the specialists that the modern market needs.

The foundation continues to develop free educational programs. You can learn more about the organization’s activities and follow the opening of new enrollments on the official website foundation.beetroot.academy.