Tetiana Taibova spent years studying and training to be a vet but since fleeing the war in Ukraine she has been working as a housekeeper, a waiter and a shop assistant in Co Louth.
The 23-year-old Ukrainian has been living in Dundalk since travelling by road and ferry to Ireland after the war broke out. She desperately wants to work in her chosen profession but can’t.
Her qualifications are not yet recognised here and her English language skills are not up to scratch to pass the professional exams to have her qualifications and experience assessed.
She is studying English at a college in Dundalk but is frustrated that she has had to go back three levels in her English class to learn the medical terms to be able to practise.
“I wanted to be a vet all my life. It is the kind of job that takes all of you. You should be in the profession all the time. Right now, I am not a vet and it feels like I lost part of myself,” she said.
The only connection Taibova has with her former veterinary clinic is Ricotta, the abandoned one-eyed cat she rescued from the clinic and brought to Ireland.
“It is frustrating when you are working as a waiter or cleaning toilets and bathrooms. You are an educated person and you had responsibilities before and I haven’t had a chance to do my job. Right now, I am doing anything to afford to live here; it is really expensive,” she said.
Since the Russians invaded in February, more than 54,000 people have arrived in Ireland. Among them are a large number of highly qualified and highly educated professionals.
According to Central Statistics Office figures published this month, almost 20,000 Ukrainians attended employment support events organised by Intreo, the State’s public employment service.
Of 14,209 who had recorded previous occupations, professionals were the largest group, making up almost a third of this number. Of the 13,878 people where the highest level of education was recorded, two-thirds had a third-level primary degree or higher.
English language skills remain the biggest obstacle to employment. Two-thirds of the Ukrainians attending Intreo events had challenges in securing jobs because of their poor English.
Former Kyiv resident Taibova is a graduate of the National University of Life and Environmental Science of Ukraine, which is not accredited by the European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education (EAEVE), a path that would allow her to register with the Veterinary Council of Ireland.
Graduates of non-EAEVE accredited programmes can have their qualification and experience assessed to determine eligibility to register and practise in Ireland. If a qualification is not deemed eligible or in line with Irish standards, the applicant can sit a two-part registration exam.
“I need to have a really high level of English and I think that is the main problem that Ukrainian doctors or nurses face,” said Taibova.
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The Veterinary Council of Ireland said it has received queries regarding registration but no formal applications for registration from graduates of veterinary medicines courses in Ukraine.
“We anticipate and hope that in early course we will have the opportunity to welcome some Ukrainian qualified veterinary practitioners on to the Veterinary Council of Ireland register as they join communities across Ireland,” said Niamh Muldoon, the council’s chief executive.
In Longford, Karim Salekh (26) is a qualified dentist, a profession that takes five years of study in Ukraine. He has two years of experience on top of that working in Vinnytsia, a city southwest of Kyiv. In Ireland, to get by, he works 12-hour day and night shifts in a bakery in Longford.
“I want to work as a dentist. That is my profession and I am good at it. Right now, because I don’t have a registration, I work in a bakery because I need to do something. I cannot sit and do nothing,” he said.
Salekh said he does not have a certificate to prove his English and will have to work a “period of adaptation”, a new part of the Dental Council’ registration which involves supervision by an Irish dentist to prove their qualifications, experience and English skills are sufficient.
“I like this country but I need to start my career here,” said the Ukrainian man whose wife gave birth to a “a little Irish boy” after they arrived here in March.
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Since the war began, the Dental Council said it had received 74 applications from refugees, mostly Ukrainians, to register as dentists. Three Ukrainians have already been fully registered.
“We have been working hard since March to get this process up. It is a brand new registration pathway and trying to establish that is not easy at the best of times but we have worked to ensure we have done this as quickly as we could,” said David O’Flynn, the council’s registrar and chief executive.
Alla Mikhnova (49) taught English in her native Ukraine but living in Dundalk now she works as a waitress because her qualifications have not yet been recognised here.
She has started the “tailored registration process” for qualified Ukrainian teachers where, if they have evidence of being a qualified teacher, they can apply to be admitted to the Register of Teachers in Ireland at the Teaching Council, the professional standards body for teachers.
“Maybe I will be able to teach Ukrainians, Ukrainian children. Of course it will take some time,” she said.
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In her hometown of Kupiansk, a Russian-occupied town in eastern Ukraine, the risks are real. Mikhnova said one of her teacher colleagues was killed by the Russians for his pro-Ukrainian position. Others were tortured. She and her two sons, Mikhailo (20) and Yevhenii (13) fled Ukraine, travelling through Russia, Belarus, Lithuania and on to Ireland.
“Ireland is a very peaceful, comfortable country and very supportive. We really like it here. I hope I can be helpful to Ukrainian children to continue what they learned in Ukraine,” she said.
In the past week, one qualified Ukrainian woman showed the opportunities for educated, qualified and experienced Ukrainians in Ireland.
Dr Iryna Kovalchuk, a former professor of English at the National University of Kyiv, is one of a team of researchers led by Dr Adam Kelly, an associate professor of English at UCD, that received research funding from the Irish Research Council, for a project comparing contemporary literature in the United States, Russia and Ireland to examine how social trust functions.
In the same week it was announced that Dr Kelly’s project was one of 48 awarded almost €24 million from the council, Dr Kovalchuk was scanning images posted on social media of the windows blown out by Russian bombs in the buildings where she worked earlier this year.
When the war began she did not want to leave her home on the outskirts of Kyiv but the sight of dead bodies around her apartment block changed her mind and she left for Ireland.
“In July I lost the last hope that the war would end soon and found the courage to admit that I would probably stay in Ireland longer than I had planned and decided to look for a job,” she said.
A job advertisement brought her to Dr Kelly who has “turned a new leaf” for her in Ireland.
She will collaborate on his project as part of the council’s Ukrainian Researcher Scheme that allows Ukrainian researchers who have fled the war to be supported by the Irish research system.
“When I look back and think about everything that happened to me personally, I cannot believe it happened to me,” she said.
“Impossible became possible thanks to goodwill, support, care and empathy of people whom I met in Ireland.”
