Choosing a profession has long ceased to be a matter of the heart, now it is an investment, and it is far from always profitable. The world is changing faster than educational programs in universities are being updated. Robots write codes, algorithms do accounting, artificial intelligence learns to draw, translate and even give advice. What seemed like a safe career path ten years ago is increasingly on the redundancies list today. Automation is merciless to those whose work is repetitive, patterned or lightly structured. And while universities continue to stamp specialists by inertia, the market for many of them is already preparing unemployment for them instead of vacancies.
The invisible risks of fashionable education: diplomas that cannot withstand competition with AI
The number of people who want to get a higher education in Ukraine is stably at a high level, but a diploma by itself has not guaranteed either employment or decent earnings for a long time. On the contrary, the wrong choice of specialty can become a direct path to unemployment or chronic retraining. The most vulnerable today are precisely those professions that are easily subject to automation. For example, artificial intelligence quickly masters accounting, analysis and even generation of financial statements. And although there is still a consistently high demand for the “Accounting and Taxation” specialty in Ukraine, it is already in a high-risk zone.
About this recently stated Deputy Minister of Education and Science Mykhailo Vynnytskyi. According to him, despite the large number of entrants to accounting majors, 91% of them pay for their studies on their own, and a significant part later faces problems in the labor market. We are watching how everything related to routine calculations and reporting is gradually being replaced by algorithms.
The reality is that today it is necessary to focus not only on the popularity of the specialty or parental advice, but above all on the ability of the profession to withstand competition with machines. Things that are based on interpersonal interaction, critical thinking and flexibility in conditions of unpredictability are not yet available to robots. That is why specialties related to human capital are gaining more and more importance.
Priority is given to medicine, pedagogy, physical rehabilitation, psychology. Such professions are difficult to acquire, have high passing scores and require long training. But the demand for them will not disappear for many years. Vynnytskyi also emphasizes the importance of infrastructural and technical areas: architecture, construction, engineering, energy, transport, aviation and unmanned systems. The state actively supports these industries, providing more budgetary places and affordable grants even for contractors.
At the same time, fundamental sciences, such as physics, chemistry, biology, geodesy, ecology, remain almost “off the radar” of applicants, although the economy desperately needs specialists in these fields. And this is another call: focusing exclusively on mass fashion in choosing a profession may cost too much in the near future. In the eyes of many, fundamental sciences are still perceived as “science for the sake of science”, and this is where technologies are born, which are then used by the whole world. Without physics, chemistry, biology, geo-information sciences, there will be neither modern medicine nor environmental protection. These are specialties with a long horizon, but with a great return for those who are ready to go deep.
It is obvious that the specialists from the Ministry of Education and Culture are right, because the labor market is changing rapidly, and professions that seemed stable yesterday are rapidly losing their relevance today. This especially applies to industries where algorithms can do better, cheaper and faster than humans. Accounting, auditing, translation, banking, call centers, administration can be easily standardized and presented in the form of a formula or instructions. That is why these professions are already being transferred to the hands of machines.
The results of the introductory campaign – 2024 as a mirror of social problems
If you familiarize yourself with by the results admission campaign in 2024, which, most likely, will not differ from those of 2025, it can be seen that Ukrainian applicants have demonstrated an interesting dynamic in the choice of specialties. The educational priorities of Ukrainian youth continue to follow trends and not the strategic needs of the state. As of the last admissions campaign, psychology, management and philology took the leading positions in the list of the most popular majors. Each of them collected tens of thousands of applications — 49,782, 47,813, and 44,663, respectively. Law (40,265) and computer science (33,121 applications) are the most popular.
This choice demonstrates a certain stability in the preferences of entrants: students continue to pursue majors associated with personal development, career flexibility or the prospect of working abroad. For example, psychology has become a favorite of those who seek to “understand themselves and the world”, management is the choice of pragmatists who see themselves in the offices of business centers, and philology still remains a traditional support of humanitarians.
However, it was not without warning signals. Compared to the previous year, interest in some technical and legal areas has decreased significantly. The “Law” specialty lost about 17,000 applications, “Computer Science” — almost 10,000, and “Software Engineering” — another 7,000. This may indicate both the oversaturation of the market with specialists in these fields, and the disillusionment of young people in terms of employment or salary prospects.
Instead, some directions traditionally remain in the educational shadow. Majors such as shipbuilding (217 applications), public health (163), educational and pedagogical sciences (75), religious studies (62) and information security management (total 12 applications) are hardly applied by applicants. At the same time, it is worth noting: these professions are not only difficult and responsible, but also critically important for the state in the conditions of war, post-pandemic recovery and cyber threats.
The choice of entrants clearly demonstrates that the image of the specialty is often more important than its social function. Despite all the information campaigns, the labor market is still not the main point of reference for young people. School ideas about “fashionable professions” and stereotypes about “unprestigious specialties” still determine the destinies of tens of thousands of young people.
Given these data, the need for systemic changes becomes obvious: the state should pay attention to the imbalance between the popularity of specialties and the real needs of society. Without the stimulation of important but unpopular areas, both through funding and through educational initiatives, the situation will remain unchanged. At the same time, it is critically important to form in applicants an understanding of the importance of the chosen profession not only from the point of view of personal benefit, but also from the point of view of its social value.
Let’s take the same “Accounting and Auditing”, which is very popular among applicants. Accounting programs, ERP systems and cloud platforms have long learned to do all routine work without human intervention. The role of the accountant is quickly transformed into something narrowly advisory or disappears altogether at the level of small and medium-sized businesses. “Management and Law” in the classic format is also gradually losing its role. It is clear that the number of people willing to “manage” is traditionally high, but without technical or analytical specialization, managers are left without tools. As for lawyers, algorithms are already preparing contract templates and analyzing risks faster than legal assistants. Philology also has shaky positions. Translation of texts and work with literature are, of course, important, but automated translators are becoming more accurate, and the market needs highly specialized specialists, not just “those who know English”.
At the same time, there are professions to which technology will not reach for a long time or will not be able to completely replace a person. For example, it is not so easy to replace doctors, physical therapists, nurses, speech therapists and clinical psychologists. These are not only complex skills, but also live contact, trust, intuition, which cannot be codified. The medical industry will only grow, given the aging population and chronic underfunding, which requires more specialists “on the ground”.
No matter how hard they try to replace teachers with special educational platforms and simulators, the real educational process consists in emotional support of the child, adaptation of the material to the needs of each, not the average student, and therefore will always need live specialists. Infrastructure and applied technical specialties, such as engineering, energy, agricultural and aviation technology, still remain one of the most undervalued treasures. This is where the market’s need for power engineers, mechanical engineers, unmanned technology specialists, transport engineers, technologists and architects is concentrated.
Ukraine literally has to rebuild itself, and without these people it is simply impossible. Applied psychology and social sciences are becoming more and more relevant in today’s realities. Of course, not all specialists with a diploma in psychology will find a job, because a psychologist in the style of “couch and say whatever you want” is no longer relevant. Now the country needs professionals who can help quickly, accurately, taking into account the context and traumatic experience. It is quite clear that specialists in clinical psychology, crisis counseling, child psychotherapy, working with veterans or internally displaced persons will be needed more than ever. These are not fashion trends, but part of the new social infrastructure.
When it comes to analytics and cybersecurity, demand is already outstripping supply, and this trend is only getting stronger. Professionals who can work with big data, secure information systems or optimize digital processes are a must in any modern business or government agency.
It is worth understanding the simple truth that those who choose majors by inertia often find themselves in the worst position. For example, classical economics without analytics, law without specialization, hotel and restaurant business without real experience, marketing without digital expertise, and, of course, accounting risk being left without demand. Formal diplomas that are not supported by the required skills and competencies are worthless today. The future is not a list of buzzwords in the title of a specialty, but a combination of knowledge, practice, flexible thinking and the ability to remain human where machines are still powerless. And it is these skills that are the best compass for choosing a profession that will not become dead weight even with the passage of time.
