LocationsOnly 18% of young people currently consider working in the public sector; in 2023, this percentage was 24%.
Photo: UNDP in Ukraine
Entering the fourth year of full-scale war, local authorities face numerous challenges: overcoming the consequences of the war, and a lack of funding and human resources, including young people. According to the study "The Impact of War on Youth in Ukraine – 2024," only 18% of young people are considering working in the public sector (24% in 2023). This may be due to stereotypes surrounding the field and high competition in the labour market. However, the percentage of young people under 35 among civil servants is currently 21%.
Still, young people can be the driving force behind positive changes in the community, introducing new technologies for its development. We spoke with Kostyantyn, a youth worker in the project office of the Novopokrovsk Settlement Council in Kharkiv Oblast, about his experience, motivation for working in the public service, how his career outlook changed after the internship, what new and valuable things he learned, why he chose this path, and whether he would like to continue developing in this field.
To address the problem of a significant reduction in human capital and a shortage of personnel in the public service, the United Nations Development Programme in Ukraine (UNDP) and the National Agency on Civil Service (NACS), in partnership with the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine and with funding from the Government of Denmark, developed a pilot internship programme. It aims to involve young people in local self-government bodies and focuses not only on working with young people, but also with public servants themselves to boost their knowledge and skills.
On the Diia.Osvita platform, an educational series "Organizing Youth Internships in Public Authorities" was released, where experts discussed tools for attracting young people, evaluating programmes, and inclusive recruitment practices. Following this, training was conducted for representatives of selected communities on employer branding, recruitment, onboarding new public service employees, and drawing up internship programmes. Nine communities were selected for piloting on a competitive basis, however all were encouraged to use the knowledge gained during the training. For example, Chernivtsi City Council independently took on 40 young interns.
Photo: UNDP in Ukraine
The internship programme lasted from November 2024 to January 2025. Mentors from the partner TyZminy NGO provided consultations to the selected communities, assisted in drawing up the necessary administrative documents, and helped attract young people. As a result, 32 interns successfully completed the programme in various departments of local self-government bodies.
Kostyantyn Pavlov is an active resident of the Novopokrovsk Settlement Community in Kharkiv Oblast. It is a relatively new community, uniting 10 settlements of the Chuhuiv District in 2020, with a population of slightly more than 16,000.
The community suffered greatly during the full-scale war due to constant attacks on critical infrastructure.
Photo: UNDP in Ukraine
Kostyantyn, Youth Worker of the Novopokrovsk Settlement Council
I'm 21 years old, and my whole life revolves around youth work. I was involved in university self-government, was a member of the student council and the chairman of the trade union, and participated in youth exchanges within the VidNOVA:UA programme (initially as a participant, and later as an ambassador).
In 2023, we created a youth council, where I am the chairman (second year of our term). It started with a youth forum, then we expanded, learned, and implemented projects. Last year, we even created a youth office where we hold meetings. But this activity is voluntary, for the development of the community and a strong community of change agents.
Recently, I participated in a one-month internship (December–January). It allowed me to understand a lot, and thanks to it, I got a job in the settlement council. My position is youth worker; I work with young people, their development, and non-formal education.
I learned about the internship from the head of the programme in our community, the deputy head of the settlement council for regional development and raising investment, Svitlana Alyoshina, who also helped create our youth council. I know there were announcements, but we were lucky to find out directly. The general part included learning about the work of all departments of the Novopokrovsk Settlement Council. We have a separate building for the Administrative Service Centre (ASC), where we learned about all the services provided. We also visited a remote location where our education and medical departments and council of group presidents are located.
Background: The modular Administrative Service Centre (ASC) in Novopokrovka was built and equipped as part of the flagship partnership of UNDP and the EU-funded EU4Recovery – Empowering Communities in Ukraine. The ASC provides 168 administrative services, covering a wide range of services for nearly 27,000 local residents and internally displaced persons.
Photo: UNDP in Ukraine
We had online lectures delivered by the programme's experts. I was most interested in the topic of project management, because this is my field. We were taught from scratch what projects are, how to manage them, how to develop a strategy, assign roles, and so on. There were also training sessions for local governments, and we were also involved in them, probably to prepare for the future.
The internship with training took place in the project office of the Novopokrovsk Settlement Council; this is what I want to do in the future – develop and implement socially important initiatives. Each of us chose our department independently. We studied existing problems and youth needs based on previous surveys and studies. Then we charted out and documented what could be done. We also worked on a real case – the Comprehensive Programme for Support and Development of Youth of the Novopokrovsk Territorial Community for 2025–2027, helping with its development. We focused a lot on practice, as we, being young people, likely have a different, more creative vision. We also looked for grant opportunities and resources to develop the community and learned how to develop project ideas and prepare applications.
One of the biggest problems is the lack of youth involvement and initiative in community issues, decision-making, and positive change.
Another problematic issue in our community is the environment. There are no large green areas; instead, there is a lot of dust. We came up with a joint solution to these two problems – to create a park in the Vvedenka settlement as a place for recreation and joint community meetings. I'm preparing a grant application to get help, conduct a communication campaign, and order an architectural plan for construction. We plan to decide on the park’s content together with the community.
To build it, we plan to involve young people through schools, social media communication campaigns, the youth council, and focus groups. We would like to revive school self-government (presidency and leadership) so that opinion leaders encourage others to participate in community work. Who can involve young people better than young people themselves?
I think this is my strong point – active leadership. It's true that young people don't always participate in projects, but I involved all my friends in the youth council. They don't show strong initiative, but they always help: physically, with ideas, and intellectually. Their contribution is equally valuable. Everyone is effective in their own way.
Photo: UNDP in Ukraine
After the internship programme, I understood how local self-government bodies (LGBs) work from the inside and who is responsible for what. And that, contrary to stereotypes, the employees of institutions are open and always ready to help.
For effective work in LGBs, you need to say “yes” more often, that is, use the opportunities if they appear, and proactively look for them. Be active and communicative – attend events, meet people, be aware of what's happening in the community and around it. Keep your word and take responsibility for it. Be flexible to adapt to our turbulent realities.
The easiest part of the internship was the theoretical part, as we were encouraged to ask questions if we were interested in something – and we were interested in everything. Work in LGBs is a subtle area where you deal with human issues and everything to do with them. So, I wanted to understand. The most difficult thing was probably choosing a department; we learned a little about each, and I wanted more specifics. But I had to make a choice.
The Novopokrovsk Settlement Council, where I’m officially employed after the internship as a youth worker, is an opportunity to learn to do everything at once. And since it is a state organization, it provides some stability. I'm 21, young, and I haven't thought about moving to big cities yet. But even if it happens, I need to gain experience first. And for now I'm here, on my native land, which I know and love.
I act as a facilitator for all youth initiatives. When young people have ideas, they come to me, and then I pass the information on and present it to the LGB, the executors, and government officials. My task is to bring dreams to life.
My main task is to build a bridge between local government bodies and young people.
If, for example, an important event is planned, I either organize it myself or find someone to help. If young people have questions about the work of the state apparatus or our youth policy in the community, I advise them.
I also strengthen the local youth council. Together, we prepare grant applications for the development of youth infrastructure and its provision, in particular, the development of youth spaces and centres. We have one in Novopokrovka now, and we're doing our best to ensure its permanent operation.
Svitlana Alyoshina, Deputy Head of the Settlement Council for Regional Development and Raising Investment
In our community, working with young people is a priority. We regularly hold events for them, respond to their requests, and involve them in discussions. In 2024, we set up a youth council, which was an initiative of the young people themselves. They organized themselves, and the settlement council simply facilitated the process. In particular, we held weekly training sessions on topics that interested young people. They told us which direction to choose, which trainer to invite, and how to organize the process so that they themselves wanted to come.
Once, young people wanted to get to know about the businesses operating in our community. We organized excursions and took small groups to the production facilities. We started thinking about an internship programme ourselves, but bureaucracy stopped us. When the opportunity arose, we were incredibly happy to even try. As a result, our community had the largest number of interns. And our young people are initiative-taking, active, and passionate.
Young people are a great asset for the community, as they will drive societal development.
Young people are more creative, don't sit around, and see problems, challenges, and solutions in a completely different light. We want them to live here and make the community comfortable for themselves. Even the Strategy for the Development of the Novopokrovsk Settlement Territorial Community of the Kharkiv Region until 2027 states that our priority is youth development, and the task is to keep young people in the community and help them. Since we don't have any higher education institutions, students leave to study in other cities.
Through the internship programme, we wanted to show that our settlement council is open to young people, communication, and joint opportunities. We always enjoy creating joint projects and improving the community. We also wanted to do everything possible to show that ordinary people work in local government bodies who want to be happy here, in this city, through developing the community.
Next time, we will conduct internship differently. We will think in advance about the positions for which we could hire interns. This time, we said “yes” to everyone who wanted to participate and then distributed them among the departments. Initially, we accepted eight interns, and seven of them finished. As a result of the internship, a separate position was specially created for one of the participants, Kostyantyn. He's really suitable for the role of youth worker and will definitely strengthen our team. I've worked with the young man for a long time as the head of the youth council, and before that, he was already distinguished by his high activity and interest.
Our interns participated in the drawing up of the Youth Policy Development Programme until 2027. This is an important result of the internship, which all its participants contributed to. Interns were part of a working group that included other young people from the education, culture, and other departments. The public discussion of the programme ended on 20 February, and it was approved on 6 March.
We don't talk about youth without youth.
We planned to include Kostyantyn in the executive committee of the community as the head of the youth council. But he says he wants to devote more time to his activities as a youth worker now and may not stay for the second term of the council. Maybe he will change his mind, or maybe someone else equally open and courageous will take his place. The more active young people, the better.
The internship programme for young people in local government bodies was implemented by the NACS and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine in cooperation with the TyZminy NGO, with the support of UNDP in Ukraine and with funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.
