The Kyiv International Economic Forum, one of the largest international forums in Eastern Europe, is brought together businesses, government, and society to discuss key economic issues and global trends on October 7th and 8th. At the forum, three of DTEK’s top managers spoke about their vision of the role of Ukraine and business in the modern world, as well as how DTEK develops new projects and invests in the future.
Valeria Zabolotna, Rector of Academy DTEK, addressed innovations in adult education and personnel issues that concern businesses during the panel discussion "Education 5.0: Our Brain in the New Reality". According to her, Ukrainians’ education level is currently high – with 82% of the population with at least some higher education. Yet, it is increasingly difficult for companies to find talent. "From the employers’ point of view, there is a qualification pit, where we look for talent and fight for it, but more and more often we are in search for those who are not on the market because they are not trained. I look for people with different knowledge, I know that employees need to be retrained,” said Valeria Zabolotna.
She pointed out that people are currently tired of information, but efforts should be made to ensure that adults, who often have only 1% of their time available for study, have the opportunity to retrain effectively. Valeria Zabolotna stressed that due to lack of free time in adults, micro-learning is becoming a trend, but for this method to be effective, the next topic needs to be more complicated than the previous one. Another trend in modern education, according to the Rector of Academy DTEK, is interactivity.
"Interactivity is also a trend. An adult should make an effort to find information that solves a specific problem, and we provide interactive courses based on several industries – the film industry, programming, pedagogy, and teaching methodology. Personalization should come to the fore as everyone has some experiences, their own learning baggage, everyone learns differently, and we must move towards personalization when the necessary information comes to a person at a time when he/she needs it,” said the Rector of the Academy DTEK.
Speaking about current discussions on hard skills and soft skills, Valeria Zabolotna noted that we should not talk about soft skills, but rather human skills, which are systemic critical thinking, creativity, and the ability to communicate. "For managers, communication is a hard skill, because they spend 80% of their work communicating and working with information," said Valeria Zabolotna. According to her, the world is changing rapidly, and professions with it. Some professions are disappearing, while new ones are emerging. And in these new professions, you will need to work with information and communicate which will allow a person to transfer into a new profession if necessary. As for online education, according to Valeria Zabolotnaya, new formats should be created, different from the usual video lessons. However, face-to-face education has certain advantages over distance learning, as it is impossible to make online educational products with transformational content. "We have to provide transformational processes through education, and they take place only through social contacts," said Valeria Zabolotna.
Olha Zakharova, DTEK's Chief Communications Officer, during her talk at KIEF voiced that in today's world, businesses are becoming media players, creating original content for their audiences. According to her, today, in order not to get lost in the media and cultural world, it is necessary to think about the education and training of children and adults. "The state must create conditions, society must provide requirements, and businesses must respond with specific solutions. There will be no separate result,” added Olha Zakharova.
She stressed that today's businesses are now media players and content producers. "When we, as a business, want to be heard, we do not necessarily have to wait for an invitation to speak on TV. We can open a discussion, broadcast it through our channels, and create our own phenomenon. Our research shows that the corporation's website is a primary source that has higher credibility than even a speaker's interview or a manager's comment in a popular publication,” said Olha Zakharova. She pointed out that today the knowledge of media culture and the ability to operate corporate media, which have ceased to be internal and have become external, is an important asset of businesses that will allow them to build trust with society.
During the panel “Global Climate Policy. What Can BusinessesPrepare for?” DTEK’s Executive Director Dmytro Sakharukspoke about important projects of the company which will positively impact Ukraine’s environmental objectives.
According to him, it is important for businesses to follow the path of decarbonisation in order to contribute to the fight against climate change. "We understand that if you do not change, do not follow this trend, then you just disappear as a company, as a business," said Dmytro Sakharuk.
Energy, he said, is one of the major emitters of CO2 affecting climate change. Therefore, a big task for DTEK is to change itself.
"We are talking about the need to build solar and wind power plants. We are actively investing in this: We have built 1 GW of installed capacity, and are now building a 500 MW Tiligulskawind farm in the south of the country. This is proof that we are on the path of changing the energy source that our customer receives: from the one containing CO2 to clean," noted Dmytro Sakharuk.
Among DTEK's important projects, Dmytro Sakharuk also named Battery Storage energy-saving technologies. DTEK has already launched a 1 MW pilot project, and in 2022 the company plans to install a 50 MW energy storage system.
Among the promising new energy areas, DTEK's Executive Director named projects using hydrogen technology. "We want to build a ‘power-to-power’ or hydrogen-gas impurities pilot project. We can see that only through pilots, through specific cases it is possible to change something. And this is an example for the whole country. Tomorrow, the customer will say, ‘I am not ready to buy energy produced from coal, or in any other way that does not comply with ESG principles,’” said Dmytro Sakharuk.
DTEK has invested 1.5 billion euros developing Ukraine's green energy. By 2040, the company plans to achieve carbon neutrality. Speaking about the prospects of investing in the green transition of Ukraine's energy sector, Dmytro Sakharuk noted that this is a matter of country risk.
"If we talk about the need to attract money to Ukraine or Ukrainian businesses, then we are talking about reducing the country’s risks. And this is a question of competition on a global scale. Because an investor can invest in Ukraine and businesses in Ukraine, or choose, for example, the UAE. Therefore, a fairly clear signal is required from the country – stability and predictability. It is impossible to invest in such large projects, while fearing the policy will change in a year,” pointed out Dmytro Sakharuk.
