Music Teacher Trades 12 Notes for 18 Wheels – and Loves It

She says she doesn’t play music anymore, but she sings when she drives her Semi rig – as one of the 1,000 women who got a new career when the war called male truck drivers to the front. Make us preferred on Google Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied Ilona Khomitska, a former music teacher, now a CE category heavy truck driver. (Photo by Lena Pettersson / Kyiv Post) Content Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied Flip Make us preferred on Google In March, the Reskilling Ukraine project celebrated the thousandth Ukrainian woman completed the training to become a truck driver through its OnTrack program at an event in the Scania main service station in the Bucha district near Kyiv. Ilona Khomitska is one of these women, who has been working as a truck driver for a year now. She holds a CE category license, which gives her the right to drive a truck weighing 7.5 tons or more in combination with a trailer. Khomitska recently told her story to Kyiv Post. Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official . Her career shift was the result of the current situation in Ukraine with war and job market challenges, while being qualified in a profession of culture. “My earlier professions no longer brought me either joy or an income to live on, doors closed, but others opened for me. I simply followed that path, everything works for me and I love it,” Khomitska told Kyiv Post when she took part in the 1,000th woman truck driver celebration. In 2023, the door opened for Khomitska when Reskilling Ukraine project decided to give Ukrainian women the opportunity to retrain and learn a new profession as truck drivers. The goals were to address the acute shortage of professional drivers caused by the war, strengthen Ukraine’s economy and reconstruction, and promote inclusion and women’s participation in the labor market. Reskilling Ukraine was implemented by the Swedish non-profit organization “Beredskapslyftet” (Skill Shift Initiative) in partnership with, among others, the Swedish truck manufacturer Scania in Ukraine. Other Topics of Interest Russia Violates Easter Ceasefire 469 Times Within Hours of Commencement The Ukrainian General Staff reported hundreds of strikes and dozens of assaults since the truce began on Saturday afternoon, despite Moscow’s pledge to observe a “holiday silence.” Khomitska is a professional musician and her first job was as a music teacher, but she has also worked as a trolleybus driver prior to her current job as a truck driver. Khomitska remarked: “I don’t work with music anymore, but I sing when I drive!” Ilona Khomitska, a former music teacher at her new workplace. (Photo by Lena Pettersson / Kyiv Post) Life as a truck driver often includes being away from home, living and sleeping in the truck, but that is not a problem for Khomitska. She may be on the road for a week or more – sometimes even abroad. When asked what it’s like to be in an environment with mostly male colleagues, she said that her colleagues are nice and helpful, but added emphatically: “Do I need help? Most of the time I don’t. But, I’ve never had any problems asking for help or getting it.” She has occasionally encountered prejudice but thinks that for the most part it doesn’t have to be a negative thing. Men see a woman behind the wheel and feel they need to help and may not believe that she can manage on her own. But she says they are good people who want her to do well. “Such prejudices don’t interfere with my work,” she said. In a panel discussion, two other women truck drivers shared their experiences for the audience at the event, Lesia Demstiukh, holding a category CE, for curtain-side trailers, and Olha Tarnavska, holding a category C, for refrigerated trucks. (From left to right) Eva Tatarova, Reskilling’s project manager, truck drivers Ilona Khomitska, Lesia Demstiukh and Olha Tarnavska. (Photo by Reskilling Ukraine) Demstiukh had worked in retail for 20 years when they closed the store and she had to find another job. After retraining to become a truck driver she is now working for a company where she tries to do the international routes. “I understand I can get a job not only in Ukraine, but I can also get it everywhere and this is so good,” she said. Tarnavska worked in a logistics company as a manager and feels that she is still in the logistics business, only that she now is instead delivering the food in a refrigerated truck “in Kyiv, outside Kyiv and around Ukraine,” she said with humor. Both women were the first women truck drivers at their respective workplaces, and both said that now they now have company within their companies. “The owner of the company hired two women colleagues from the Reskilling project, so I think he was satisfied,” Demstiukh said with both pride and humility in her voice. When asked what makes them happy with their new jobs, Demstiukh emphasized the good working conditions. Both women also talked about the importance of probation in the beginning. Tarnavska had two weeks of probation where an experienced driver showed her all kinds of things, “everything from A-Z”, and that made it easier for her to swiftly get into the job. Demstiukh expressed gratitude for the support she got when she was new and said she feels like she can always contact them if problems arise and get an answer. She gave the example of document issues when crossing the border, which can be a challenge when doing it for the first time. When asked what advice they would give to prospective employers, the answer was “not to be afraid of hiring women, you just show them how to start and give them a very good probation, and they will do very well”. According to the Reskilling presentation by project manager Eva Tatarova, almost 50 percent of the women truck drivers in the project are 40-49 years old, 30 % age 30-39 and women over 50 make up 14 %. A small part, 7 %, is aged 22-29. A few of the 1,000 women truck drivers, here dressed in green, in Scania's main service station. In the middle is Eva Tatarova, Reskilling’s project manager. (Photo by Reskilling Ukraine) Tatarova also highlighted statistics of employment possibilities so far. Employment within three months after the education was in 2024 approximately 22 percent and in 2025 it had increased to 32 percent. The goal for 2026 is at least 40 percent. In-depth interviews with 57 women truck drivers in the “actively seeking employment” subgroup reveal that 100 percent of the respondents faced the same barrier: “experience required.” (Scania CEO Håkan Jyde (left), co-founder of Beredskapslyftet Fredrik Hillelson (right) and a woman truck driver performing practical driving skills (middle, back) at the Scania main service station in the Bucha district near Kyiv on March 26, 2026. (Photo by Lena Pettersson / Kyiv Post) Fredrik Hillelson, co-founder of Beredskapslyftet and initator of the Reskilling project, commented on the employment statistics. “I think as these women show that they are talented, ambitious and reliable, this will only slowly but surely go up. At the same time, of course, we are talking about women who are challenging a male-dominated job, so everything takes time. But I would say this is a success. It’s a cool thing,” Hillelson said.