In view of the new law on the use of English as a language of international communication in Ukraine, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on 4 June, the High School supports the course of improving the knowledge of English by public servants. The document defines the categories of positions for which candidates are required to speak English, and regulates the specifics of using English in the work of government agencies, local governments, education, culture, transport, healthcare, etc.

For Ukraine, which is striving for European integration, knowledge of English is a key factor in successful integration into the European space, allowing public servants to have access to a wider range of information to make informed and effective decisions, and demonstrating professionalism and a modern approach to the work of public authorities. Therefore, the transformation of the status of English in Ukraine is a necessity and a strategic step towards our country’s full membership in the EU, as knowledge of English is a key competence in the context of globalisation.

As an educational and research hub for the development of a new generation of public servants, High School offers a wide range of opportunities for learning English.

This includes both short-term and long-term foreign language programmes at different levels of difficulty; there are also online dictionaries and other teaching aids for civil servants to help them improve their professional skills, vocabulary and grammar. In addition, civil servants can improve their language skills at our English Speaking Club.
After all, Speaking Club is an opportunity to immerse yourself in the language environment and informally practice your spoken English skills, which helps to remove the language barrier.
By the way, this week, the first batch of Speaking Club students – 45 public servants from 39 government agencies responsible for European integration – received certificates of advanced training. In addition, 400 people were certified under the general professional programme.

In the future, we have equally ambitious plans to open a summer school in English for civil servants of categories A, B, C to master a completely new and extremely interesting programme called Business Correspondence. And also a new enrolment for a long-term programme.

For reference.
English is currently the official de jure language in 58 of the world’s 196 countries. It is one of the six languages of the United Nations, as well as an official language of the European Union, the Council of Europe, the European Commission, the European Free Trade Association and NATO. More than 1.5 billion people learn English worldwide.

Ukraine is one of the countries with an average level of English proficiency and ranks 40th out of 112 countries.