The International Soft Skills Summit 2026, dedicated to the development of individuals, teams, and organizations in the context of the spread of artificial intelligence, will take place September 12–14 in a hybrid format and will bring together over 70 Ukrainian and international experts.
According to the event organizers, the first day of the summit will take place in person in Kyiv with an online livestream, while the remaining two days will be held online. More than 5,000 people are expected to participate.
The summit will also feature the inaugural Soft Skills Summit Awards 2026—a professional award for corporate programs in the areas of leadership development, talent development, team development, corporate culture, and soft skills.
According to the organizers, the Soft Skills Summit program is structured around three levels of development: the individual, the team, and the organization.
On September 12, the program will focus on individual development. On this day in Kyiv, there will be presentations on the main stage, panel discussions, hands-on Soft Skills Hubs, a Mindfulness Zone, an EXPO, Guided Speed Networking, and the awards ceremony for the winners of the Soft Skills Summit Awards 2026.
On September 13, the online program will focus on team development, communication, psychological safety, and modern approaches to leadership.
On September 14, participants will discuss corporate culture, talent and change management, organizational effectiveness, and corporate transformation driven by artificial intelligence.
“Today, a company’s competitive advantage is determined not only by technology. It is determined by people—their ability to think, interact, learn, and lead others through change. That is why we created the Soft Skills Summit—a platform that brings together global expertise and Ukrainian experience to help people, teams, and organizations prepare for the future,” said Ihor Lukianenko and Nataliia Novhorodska, co-founders of UpPro School and the Soft Skills Summit.
The organizers note that the development of soft skills is becoming increasingly important amid the spread of artificial intelligence technologies and changing labor market demands.
According to a World Economic Forum forecast, approximately 39% of the professional skills required for work will change by 2030. Among the competencies expected to grow in importance the fastest are analytical thinking, resilience, adaptability, creativity, leadership, and social influence.
For Ukraine, the relevance of this issue is also linked to labor shortages, the integration of veterans and internally displaced persons into the labor market, the potential return of Ukrainians from abroad, the need to develop management teams, and the implementation of AI tools in business processes.
Among the announced speakers for the Soft Skills Summit 2026 are Andriy Fedoriv, founder of Fedoriv Group; Richard E. Boyatzis (U.S.), communications expert and TED speaker Julian Treasure (UK), SoftServe’s Senior Vice President of HR Renta Delporte, Advanter Group Chairman Andriy Dligach, PwC Ukraine Academy Leader Iryna Blinova, business consultant Frank Pucelik (U.S.), Shola Kaye (UK), an expert in communications and People-First culture, and Chen Lizra (Canada), a somatic transformational coach and TED speaker.
The full program and information on participation are available on the Soft Skills Summit 2026 website.
The summit is aimed at business owners, CEOs, team leaders, HR and L&D professionals, business trainers, coaches, psychologists, consultants, and other specialists working in the field of people and organizational development.
As part of the Soft Skills Summit Awards 2026, the best programs will be recognized in five categories: leadership development, talent development, team and corporate culture development, mental health support, and innovation in soft skills training and development.
Projects will be evaluated using a unified methodology developed by the UpPro School Analytical Center in collaboration with the non-governmental organization “Independent Association of Psychology and Coaching” and an independent panel of experts. The organizers state that the main criteria will be the program’s professional value, the quality of its implementation, and its actual impact, regardless of the company’s size.
Detailed information about the award and the terms of participation is available on the Soft Skills Summit Awards 2026 page.
The summit is organized by UpPro School—an international educational center for training and professional development of psychologists, HR and L&D specialists, managers, and other professionals working in the field of people, team, and organizational development. According to the organizers, UpPro School is an accredited CPD provider in the United Kingdom; over 150,000 participants have taken part in the center’s educational events, and more than 8,000 students have completed professional training.
For “Open4Business” readers, the promo code Open4Business is available, offering a 10% discount on tickets to the Soft Skills Summit 2026. The promo code is valid through September 11, 2026.
For partnership inquiries, contact Svitlana Chaurova at partnerships@softskills-summit.com.
Open4Business is the official media partner of the event
The Veterans Cluster of Ukraine, in collaboration with the “Architecture of Resilience” Veterans Institute at Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, continues to support veterans, active-duty military personnel, and their family members as part of the 2026 admissions campaign.
The application period for master’s programs begins on August 7. By that time, applicants must create an online account, register for any applicable benefits, complete a foreign language interview, and pass subject-specific entrance exams.
Program participants can receive tuition-free education in over 50 fields of study and more than 100 academic programs. Funding is available through state compensation programs, grants, scholarships, and employer support programs.
The program also provides opportunities for retraining, professional development, earning a second higher education degree, and admission to master’s or doctoral programs. Veterans are offered full-time, part-time, online, and distance learning options, allowing them to combine their education with work, medical treatment, rehabilitation, or military service.
Throughout their studies, participants can receive psychological support, get involved in projects to rebuild Ukraine, and interact with employers. Program partners include Axor, Barks, and other businesses.
The network of partner universities includes KNUBA, the National University of Physical Education and Sports of Ukraine, the Western Ukrainian National University, the Yuriy Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic National University, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Drohobych State Pedagogical University, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Ivan Pul’uj Ternopil National Technical University, and the University of Educational Management.
The National University of Physical Education and Sports of Ukraine operates a training and rehabilitation center for veterans.
One of the program’s students is veteran Vadym Honcharenko, who is studying at KNUBA to become a coach in adaptive sports. According to him, his choice of major was influenced by his own experience with rehabilitation through sports.
“I want to show people who, due to injuries or disabilities, think that an active life is over for them that this is not the case. A lot depends on us,” Goncharenko noted.
He also advises prospective students to focus on their own needs and choose a major that will be practically useful after graduation.
The Veterans’ Cluster emphasizes that there is not much time left to make a decision, but applicants can still prepare their documents and complete the necessary procedures before the application period begins.
Detailed information is available on the website Veterano.info.
Contact information for consultations:
+38 073 94 96 179
+38 050 22 35 182
+38 067 49 81 098
Artem Goncharenko, Director of the Veterans Institute: +38 073 177 72 73.
Antonina Savchenko, Coordinator of Higher Education and Admissions Programs: +380 63 245 34 05.
admissions, EDUCATION, GONCHARENKO, KNUBA, master’s program, UNIVERSITY, ветеран
With the support of the international electrical engineering company Schneider Electric, Ukrainian universities have gained access to state-of-the-art ETAP software for designing and analyzing electrical networks. The company also conducted training for faculty members: more than 200 representatives from 30 universities learned how to use the professional tool SEE Electrical Expert. Thanks to this initiative, students will be able to learn how to design electrical schematics using modern digital solutions, preparing them for real-world professional challenges in the energy sector.
SEE Electrical Expert is software for creating electrical schematics, technical documentation, and 3D visualizations. The program allows users to develop schematic diagrams, work with component libraries, and automatically generate specifications and documentation, which significantly reduces project development time and helps minimize the risk of errors. It also enables the creation of a 3D model of an electrical panel, helping to avoid mistakes during assembly.
In addition to the software, in 2025 Schneider Electric donated equipment worth 2,000,000 UAH to universities for their educational laboratories, enabling students to apply modern concepts of automation and electrical engineering in practice and promoting the integration of innovative engineering solutions into the educational process.
Specifically, state-of-the-art electrical engineering equipment was donated to the National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute,” Lviv Polytechnic National University, Odesa National Technological University, National University of Food Technologies, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Kryvyi Rih National University, and other higher education institutions.
In 2025, more than 600 ETAP licenses were transferred to Ukrainian universities in several stages:
Training sessions on using SEE Electrical Expert took place from September 2025 through May 2026, with over 200 faculty members from 30 Ukrainian universities participating in total.
“Today’s students are the engineers who will be developing Ukraine’s energy sector tomorrow. That is why it is important for them to learn using the technologies employed in the real world. By investing in education, we not only help young professionals adapt more quickly to their careers, but we also contribute to the country’s reconstruction and create opportunities for young people to realize their potential in Ukraine,” said Mykhailo Bubnov, CEO of Schneider Electric.
“In the near future, we have an ambitious plan to create a modern project laboratory, the ‘Schneider Electric Academy-KAI,’ which will not only ensure the use of software in the educational process but also enable students to participate in creating digital twins of the power supply systems for critical infrastructure in the aviation industry. “Therefore, the effectiveness of our collaboration with Schneider Electric allows us to look to the future with confidence. The energy labor market will be supplied with specialists possessing the necessary professional skills and competencies,” commented Serhiy Ilienko, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Power Machinery at the National University “Kyiv Aviation Institute.”
Schneider Electric also announced a teaching materials competition aimed at encouraging the academic community to actively use SEE Electrical Expert in the educational process. Competition participants have the opportunity to present their own approaches to solving applied electrical design problems.
EDUCATION, electrical design, ETAP, Schneider Electric, UNIVERSITY
Ukraine should consider education as a separate export sector capable of bringing in foreign currency revenues, forming international ties and strengthening the country’s influence on the global market, believes Golda Vynogradska, president of the Public Union “International Movement ‘PRORYV’”, Doctor of Philosophy in the field of education.
In a blog on the website of the Interfax-Ukraine agency, she noted that in public discussion about new drivers of the economy, the agricultural sector, metallurgy, IT, the defense industry, energy and logistics are most often mentioned, while educational exports remain almost outside attention.
According to Vynogradska, in many countries education has long become not only a social sphere, but also a full-fledged export of services, an instrument of soft power and part of economic policy. This approach is used by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Türkiye and China, forming through international education networks of future partners, managers, entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers and opinion leaders.
Ukraine also has a basis for developing this area: hundreds of higher education institutions, strong scientific schools, experience in training foreign students, teaching potential and the international reputation of Ukrainian specialists.
Before the full-scale war, Ukraine was a notable player in the international education market. In 2019-2021, about 76-80 thousand foreign students from more than 150 countries studied at Ukrainian higher education institutions. The largest centers were Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, while among the key countries of origin of students were India, Morocco, Nigeria, Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Turkmenistan and China.
After 2022, the number of foreign students decreased significantly due to the war, security risks, the closure of air traffic and the complication of entry procedures. In 2023, about 51.7 thousand foreign students remained in Ukraine, which is almost 30 thousand fewer than before the full-scale invasion. As of the beginning of 2026, more than 21 thousand foreign students from 127 countries were studying at Ukrainian universities, and in 2025 about 5.5 thousand new students were enrolled, which slightly exceeded the 2024 figure.
Vynogradska notes that these data indicate not only losses, but also the preservation of potential. In her opinion, demand for Ukrainian education has not disappeared completely even under conditions of war, but the model of attracting foreign students has largely remained pre-war.
The expert considers the outdated architecture of access to Ukrainian education to be the key limitation. Traditionally, the system was built around the physical arrival of a student in Ukraine even before the start of full-fledged studies. In peacetime, such a model worked, but under current conditions it has become one of the main barriers.
“The full-scale war did not destroy the international education market for Ukraine, but revealed the weak point of the old model: ‘first come to Ukraine, and then enroll,’” Vynogradska noted.
In her opinion, a student of the 21st century expects digital admission, remote communication with the university, transparent verification of documents, flexible formats of study, clear procedures and service that meets international standards.
Among possible steps for the development of educational exports, Vynogradska names the digitalization of foreign students’ admission, transferring primary procedures online, remote verification of documents, the development of the “study online first, arrive later” model, the definition of priority markets and the development of English-language programs.
Promising areas for Ukraine may include medicine, engineering, IT, agricultural technologies, infrastructure recovery, energy, cybersecurity, defense technologies, crisis management, public administration and post-war reconstruction.
According to the author’s assessment, educational exports have not yet become the same state priority as attracting investment, supporting the export of goods or promoting Ukrainian technology companies abroad. At the same time, a separate university cannot independently form the national brand of Ukrainian education, therefore the development of this area requires coordination between the state, universities, business and international partners.
Vynogradska believes that every foreign student is not only tuition fees, but also a future specialist, a potential partner of Ukrainian business, a doctor, an engineer, an official, a scientist or an entrepreneur who can maintain a connection with Ukraine for decades.
“Ukraine competes for investment, export contracts, international assistance, technologies and markets. It is time to begin competing just as seriously for students as well,” she emphasized.
Golda Vynogradska is president of the Public Union “International Movement ‘PRORYV’”, Doctor of Philosophy in the field of education, expert in public-private partnership, innovation and human capital development, adviser to the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine in 2016-2021.
The biopharmaceutical company “Biopharma” invests about $2 million annually in education; plans for this year include opening biology schools in Uzhhorod and Lviv, company president Kostyantyn Yefimenko told the “Interfax-Ukraine” news agency.
“We invest about $2 million in education every year. We have already built two biology schools in Kyiv and Bila Tserkva. After school, the children come to us for extracurricular classes. Ten hours a week: three hours of math, three hours of chemistry, and four hours of biology. It’s free for the children, but they’re taught by top-notch instructors,” said Yefimenko.
He noted, however, that the goal of this project is not to train a large number of employees specifically for the company.
“We don’t need a very large number of people at Biopharma; our revenue per employee is over one million dollars. We need talented people, but not a large number of them. I’m doing this as a charitable project; I want to build 25 such schools in Ukraine. I want these people to start creating their own companies in the biotech sector. This is impossible to achieve with the current level of school and university education. It requires people with highly specialized training. And I hope that we will be able to train such people; they will come to us so that we can help them or invest in them, and create these companies together with them. My goal is to create the conditions for such an ecosystem,” Yefimenko noted.
He announced that the immediate plans include opening two more biology schools, in Uzhhorod and Lviv, which will begin operations this fall.
“Biofarma” is a Ukrainian biotechnology company engaged in plasma collection and specializing in the production of plasma for the manufacture of blood products.
biology schools, biotechnology, EDUCATION, Yefimenko, БІОФАРМА
KAN Development, in partnership with the “A+” Educational Holding, has opened a large-scale, innovative educational complex at the Respublika residential complex, according to the developer’s press office.
Respublika STEAM School is a modern school-style campus with infrastructure comparable to that of a university: a three-story atrium with an amphitheater, laboratories, a makerspace, a swimming pool, sports halls, a media library, open spaces for teamwork, and a modern shelter. The building covers an area of 26,300 square meters and is designed to accommodate 1,120 students.
The A+ Educational Holding brings together educational projects offering preschool, school, and extracurricular education for children aged 1 to 19. As reported, KAN Development is investing $80 million in the construction of a school in the “Respublika” residential complex and a school on McKenna Street in Kyiv. In total, the educational institutions are designed to accommodate 2,000 students. Respublika STEAM School will become the holding’s 16th educational institution.
KAN Development was founded in 2001. The company’s portfolio includes Ocean Plaza, Respublika Park, Tetris Hall, Central Park, Comfort Town, “Faina Town,” Respublika, IQ Business Center, and 101 Tower. Over more than 20 years in the market, KAN Development has created over 3 million square meters of residential, retail, and commercial real estate. The company is also actively developing its own network of educational institutions, “A+”.
