This paper provides the comparative view to the institutional development of skill formation and deployment systems than have been taking place during the post-communist transformations and reforms in Lithuania and Ukraine. This research is focused on disclosing of the similarities and differences of the critical junctures in the institutional transformations of skill formation and deployment in these countries. It also looks to the trends of convergence and divergence of the current pathways of their institutional development. Belonging of the both countries to the Soviet Union (Baltic countries, Ukraine) created similar implications of the Soviet legacy for skill formation and deployment systems, although with the different depth and extent due to the different duration Soviet period. Institutional transformation of skill formation and deployment in Lithuania followed the way of abrupt institutional change driven by the “catching-up” motivation (Norkus, 2008). It involved different contradictions caused by the domination of the “wild capitalism” in the field of skill deployment and dominant state regulation in the field of skill formation (Tūtlys, Spūdytė, 2011; Spöttl, Tūtlys, 2017). Skill formation and deployment system of Ukraine has undergone protracted transformation due to the complicated and much more iterative transition from planned Soviet approaches to skill formation to the democratic and market-based approaches. Collapse of the planned economy led to the development of oligarch-monopoly type of economic model, while the development of public education system did not followed the needs of socioeconomic development. This has led to much slower and more protracted institutionalization of the new skill formation and deployment system in Ukraine comparing to Lithuania. However there can also be noticed some similarities in the institutional development of skill formation and deployment of both countries, such as top-down approaches in the implementation of key reforms in education and training with the domination of state authorities and employer associations. The process of Euro-integration became important critical juncture for institutional development of skill formation and deployment in Lithuania and Ukraine. Access of Lithuania to the EU in 2004 enhanced and supported rather dynamic institutional reforms in VET, higher education and lifelong learning oriented to the improving of the labour market relevance of provision of skills. The Euro-integration process in the field of skill formation and deployment in the Ukraine intensified after the Dignity Revolution of 2014 and involved a wide range of policy learning initiatives and reforms in the fields of curriculum design and qualifications.

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