Industrial policy of Ukraine: implementation of occupational standards to ensure qualified personnel

The purpose of the article is to study the place and role of occupational standards in providing industry with qualified personnel and to define main tasks and problems of their implementation in Ukraine. Research methods: dialectical, abstract-logical, induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, analogy and comparisons, system, complex and content analysis. Approaches to the formation of modern industrial policy are analyzed, attention is focused on the main determinants of EU industrial policy - the creation of a favorable environment for the development of small and medium-sized businesses and equal opportunities in conditions of competition, which means the struggle to achieve better conditions of access to limited resources. The role of qualified personnel as the scarcest resource that determines the competitiveness of industry is shown. The problem of the shortage of qualified labor for industry in Ukraine is highlighted, the solution of which requires the creation of conditions for the development of competition and ensuring the training of professional personnel in accordance with the needs of industry, in particular – by modernizing occupational standards of industrial specialties. The place and importance of the implementation of occupational standards in providing industry with qualified personnel, their relationship with the education system and the labor market, and main problems of implementation are defined. It has been proven that employers' decision to introduce occupational standards "affects" the most sensitive foundations of labor relations – employment (the employees’ compliance with the requirements for qualifications, education, etc.), remuneration of labor (rate fixing), conditions and safety of work. Conclusions were made about the need to develop the Methodology for the introduction of occupational standards, the existence of a wide field for the joint activity of social partners on the basis of ensuring the transparency of the transition to occupational standards for employees, the use of existing mechanisms of social dialogue for the participation of personnel, in particular – through the representation of trade unions, in the activities of the working group on the introduction of occupational standards.