Ukraine plans to offer retraining opportunities for older workers lacking modern job skills, Deputy Prime Minister Sergiy Tigipko said Thursday, according to Xinhua.

"We must give an opportunity to gain new skills to people whose profession is no longer in demand in the labor market," Tigipko said during a visit to the Crimean peninsula in eastern Ukraine.

The state will issue vouchers worth 1,500 U.S. dollars for retraining to people over 45 years old if they have at least 15 years of service, Tigipko said.

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The state will offer the workers a list of professions to choose Tigipko said. He said the "newly baked" students may enter any university or school that they choose.

Tigipko also said that the government will exempt businesses that hire workers older than 50 from social taxes.

Ukraine`s official unemployment rate stood at 1.7 percent in early June.