fbpx
Size of letters 1x
Site color
Image
Additionally
Line height
Letter spacing
Font
Embedded items (videos, maps, etc.)
 

Transformation of military skills into a civilian career: outcomes of the EBA working group discussion

29/ 05/ 2026
  On 13 May, the ESG Hub Veterans’ Practices and Policies Working Group of the European Business Association held a meeting on “Transforming military skills and positions into civilian careers”. Participants discussed approaches to veterans’ employment, adapting military experience to the civilian labour market, and the role of business in creating an inclusive, veteran-friendly environment. The session was moderated by Serhii Yanchuk, Chair of the Veterans’ Practices and Policies Working Group of the ESG Hub, Veteran Officer at Metro Cash & Carry Ukraine, and a veteran. Digital tools and AI for reintegration Hlib Stryzhko, veteran, Marine Corps serviceman, consultant at Robota.ua, and Chief Veterans Partner at Starlight Media, presented tools supporting veterans in their job search. In particular, the “open to military experience” tag on the Robota.ua platform helps candidates identify employers willing to work with people with military or combat experience. The platform currently features over 1,000 vacancies from 600 companies and around 4,000 veteran CVs. The speaker also highlighted the potential of AI tools to translate military experience into language understandable for the civilian labour market. According to Hlib: “A person in the military is a multi-skilled operator. When defenders return, our shared task is to help them properly structure and describe this vast set of skills in business-friendly language. To support this, we have integrated an AI agent: a candidate uploads their military occupational specialities, and the system automatically generates a detailed description of their experience in civilian terminology, with the option for further editing.” The moderator also advised veterans to pay close attention to the companies they apply to, carefully assessing internal corporate culture and the psychological environment. Fozzy Group experience: the veteran journey map The meeting continued with practical cases of successful reintegration and skills transformation presented by Oleh Krykun, Deputy Director for Inclusion and Veterans’ Support at Fozzy Group. He shared his career path and return to work after service and rehabilitation, as well as the company’s approach to supporting mobilised employees. Currently, Silpo employs over 400 veterans, around 60% of whom joined the company after completing their service. Oleh emphasised that companies must know and understand each of their veteran employees. At Silpo, this is implemented across all team levels through a veteran journey map, covering the stages “before mobilisation”, “during service”, and “after return”. “It is impossible to become veteran-friendly overnight — this requires long-term, systematic work. Change must happen not only in recruiters’ mindset but across the entire team. Corporate promises must be reflected in daily actions on the ground. How effectively candidates with combat experience can apply their unique skills and potential depends entirely on the conditions created by the company,” the speaker stressed. Company readiness audit for inclusive hiring by AllTogetherJobs Finally, Olha Novikova, CEO & Founder of AllTogether.Jobs and Morethan.UA, presented tools for assessing companies’ readiness for inclusive hiring. AllTogether.Jobs works to develop an inclusive labour market and helps businesses evaluate their approaches to engaging various vulnerable groups, including veterans. She highlighted an interesting trend: Ukrainian companies often implement numerous inclusive initiatives but are not fully aware of them. As a result, they fail to communicate these efforts externally, which means potential candidates do not apply for vacancies. Olha also noted that the most successful workplace adaptation outcomes are seen in companies where reintegration processes are directly led by professionals with real military experience. The European Business Association thanks all speakers and participants for their proactive engagement in developing veterans’ practices and policies in Ukraine. We look forward to seeing you at upcoming ESG Hub events!
01/

On 13 May, the ESG Hub Veterans’ Practices and Policies Working Group of the European Business Association held a meeting on “Transforming military skills and positions into civilian careers”. Participants discussed approaches to veterans’ employment, adapting military experience to the civilian labour market, and the role of business in creating an inclusive, veteran-friendly environment.

The session was moderated by Serhii Yanchuk, Chair of the Veterans’ Practices and Policies Working Group of the ESG Hub, Veteran Officer at Metro Cash & Carry Ukraine, and a veteran.

Digital tools and AI for reintegration

Hlib Stryzhko, veteran, Marine Corps serviceman, consultant at Robota.ua, and Chief Veterans Partner at Starlight Media, presented tools supporting veterans in their job search. In particular, the “open to military experience” tag on the Robota.ua platform helps candidates identify employers willing to work with people with military or combat experience. The platform currently features over 1,000 vacancies from 600 companies and around 4,000 veteran CVs.

The speaker also highlighted the potential of AI tools to translate military experience into language understandable for the civilian labour market. According to Hlib:

“A person in the military is a multi-skilled operator. When defenders return, our shared task is to help them properly structure and describe this vast set of skills in business-friendly language. To support this, we have integrated an AI agent: a candidate uploads their military occupational specialities, and the system automatically generates a detailed description of their experience in civilian terminology, with the option for further editing.”

The moderator also advised veterans to pay close attention to the companies they apply to, carefully assessing internal corporate culture and the psychological environment.

Fozzy Group experience: the veteran journey map

The meeting continued with practical cases of successful reintegration and skills transformation presented by Oleh Krykun, Deputy Director for Inclusion and Veterans’ Support at Fozzy Group. He shared his career path and return to work after service and rehabilitation, as well as the company’s approach to supporting mobilised employees. Currently, Silpo employs over 400 veterans, around 60% of whom joined the company after completing their service.

Oleh emphasised that companies must know and understand each of their veteran employees. At Silpo, this is implemented across all team levels through a veteran journey map, covering the stages “before mobilisation”, “during service”, and “after return”.

“It is impossible to become veteran-friendly overnight — this requires long-term, systematic work. Change must happen not only in recruiters’ mindset but across the entire team. Corporate promises must be reflected in daily actions on the ground. How effectively candidates with combat experience can apply their unique skills and potential depends entirely on the conditions created by the company,” the speaker stressed.

Company readiness audit for inclusive hiring by AllTogetherJobs

Finally, Olha Novikova, CEO & Founder of AllTogether.Jobs and Morethan.UA, presented tools for assessing companies’ readiness for inclusive hiring. AllTogether.Jobs works to develop an inclusive labour market and helps businesses evaluate their approaches to engaging various vulnerable groups, including veterans.

She highlighted an interesting trend: Ukrainian companies often implement numerous inclusive initiatives but are not fully aware of them. As a result, they fail to communicate these efforts externally, which means potential candidates do not apply for vacancies. Olha also noted that the most successful workplace adaptation outcomes are seen in companies where reintegration processes are directly led by professionals with real military experience.

The European Business Association thanks all speakers and participants for their proactive engagement in developing veterans’ practices and policies in Ukraine.

We look forward to seeing you at upcoming ESG Hub events!

If you have found a spelling error, please, notify us by selecting that text and pressing Ctrl+Enter.

Start
in the Telegram bot
Read articles. Share in social networks
Nationwide Minute of Silence
01:00
09:00
Nationwide Minute of Silence
Let us honor the memory of all those who lost their lives in russia’s war against Ukraine
00:43

Spelling error report

The following text will be sent to our editors: