Svitlo has been verified on Vector, the Ukrainian government’s national platform for teachers’ professional development. Our teacher training now counts officially towards the CPD hours every Ukrainian teacher is required to complete. We’re starting with teachers of English.

Ukrainian teachers have kept schools running through four years of full-scale war. Russian attacks have damaged 4,650 educational facilities. On 2nd November 2026, Russian guided bombs hit a school in Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region, killing at least 37 people, with dozens more still missing. Many teachers now work through air raid alerts, power cuts and online lessons that drop out mid-sentence. Research shows emotional exhaustion is now the most common sign of burnout among them.

They don’t need more theory. They need practical training that helps them in their classrooms tomorrow, and the sense that they’re not doing this alone. That’s what we’ve designed our programme to give them.

How the training works

This isn’t a course where teachers watch videos and tick boxes. Teachers train by doing:

• Learning alongside our volunteers. Ukrainian teachers work with our international volunteers, many of them experienced British teachers, lecturers and tutors. They observe lessons, share methods and plan together.
• Teaching Svitlo Reads in their own schools. Svitlo Reads is our reading club. Teachers bring it into their own classrooms as hybrid lessons: Svitlo delivers the sessions online and the teacher leads the class in the room. Their pupils get regular contact with native English speakers, and the teacher builds new skills with real children rather than in theory.
• Focused courses on today’s classroom. Topics include helping pupils catch up on learning lost to the war, building stronger reading comprehension, and using modern teaching tools in everyday lessons.

What teachers get from it

• State-recognised certificates. Every course completed with Svitlo counts towards their required CPD hours.
• A pay rise. Those hours feed into Ukraine’s teacher attestation system, which can move teachers up a grade and raise their salary.
• Solidarity. Teachers see that colleagues around the world are standing with them, giving their time every week. Going into another hard winter, that matters as much as the certificate.

How UK teachers can help

We’re looking for UK teachers to join us as volunteers, teaching English for 45 minutes once a week, for at least 6 weeks. Register here and say that you’re interested in working alongside Ukrainian colleagues. You’ll share what you know, you’ll learn a great deal about teaching under pressure, and you’ll know you’re making the world a better place. Even one session a week makes a real difference. Get in touch if you’d like to be involved.