Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine #866 of July 1, 2026

Who is affected: people with Group I and II disabilities who seek to acquire a new profession in the field of cybersecurity; educational entities in the field of non-formal education; the Fund for Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities; employers in the field of cybersecurity.

Summary:

  • launches an experimental project of free cybersecurity training for no more than 2,000 people with Group I and II disabilities, with the aim of their subsequent employment in the acquired qualification;
  • sets the maximum cost of training per person at up to UAH 150,000, which includes psychological support, theoretical and practical training, and national or international certification;
  • defines the minimum scope of the training program — 250 academic hours — and provides for the possibility of in-person, distance, or blended learning depending on the participant’s needs;
  • selects educational operators through an open competition with evaluation against five criteria: quality of the program, practical component, level of instructors, inclusiveness, and cost of training, with cost carrying the greatest weight (40 points out of 100);
  • obliges the educational operator not only to train but also to employ the participant: final settlement is made only after confirmation of the fact of employment and receipt of the certificate;
  • requires competition participants to submit copies of memoranda with employers on their intention to hire graduates already at the stage of submitting the competitive proposal.

What is right:

The project is an unconventional and potentially important decision. First, cybersecurity is a sector with real and growing demand for personnel, where the possibility of working remotely removes some of the barriers, which is especially significant for people with severe disabilities.

Second, the “train and employ” mechanism, with the operator’s financial accountability for the result, is the right approach, distinguishing this project from programs in which the educational institution receives money regardless of whether the person found a job.

Third, the requirement for competition participants to have memoranda with employers even before training begins is an attempt to ensure real, rather than declarative, employment of graduates. Psychological support as a mandatory component of the program is an important detail: transitioning to a new profession after acquiring a disability is not only an educational but also a psychological process.

What happened:

The project is bold and timely: it connects the personnel shortage in cybersecurity with the need of people with disabilities for accessible and quality employment, and does so through a market-based mechanism of competitive operator selection with payment tied to results.

The question of whether it will become a systemic instrument or remain a one-off experiment is open; the answer will depend on the quality of the selected operators, the genuine readiness of employers to hire graduates, and whether 2,000 places prove sufficient to assess the effectiveness of this mechanism.