ITU Public talks #Frankivsk: IT Education in Spotlight

The participants of the discussion identified three main challenges facing the IT education industry today:

• The outflow of specialists and the problem of meeting the IT industry needs with the required number of specialists.
• Quality of training of IT specialists.
• Changing the speciality of an IT specialist taking into account the constant transformation of the IT industry.

Educational initiatives in the western regions are now of primary importance for the Ukrainian IT sphere. The panel discussion at ITU Public Talks showed the human capital available here and outlined the vector of further development in the segments of higher, non-formal and vocational education, – Anton Chornyi, CEOGoIT, moderator.

Bohdan Futerko shared his restrained forecasts. He believes that the primary task is to save and retain at least 12% of highly qualified specialists who will leave the country after the end of the War. Since the specificity of IT work is in the determining role of the experience and certificates of international companies instead of the diploma during employment, the 95% of professionals do not need IT education. That is why the niche for training a large number of new IT specialists can be filled by vocational, technical and advanced professional education under the conditions of proper organization of the work of institutions, well-adapted programs, motivated and trained teachers. At the same time, universities could be interesting only if they created additional value and advantages for labor market.

I am convinced that professional pre-high and technical educational institutions can provide high-quality training of specialists in cooperation with IT companies. But regardless of where exactly the student will study – at university, college, vocational school or at professional training workshops – we should always focus on training a specialist to work in the global market, in the industry where there are no borders for professionals. Although I am sure that Ukrainian IT – which will definitely develop and grow – is ready to provide work to everyone trained by us, – Bohdan Futerko, Deputy Head of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration for Digital Development, Digital Transformations and Digitalization (CDTO).

According to Ivan Dyachishyn’s expectations, after the end of the War, highly qualified specialists with 10 or more years of work experience will go abroad, while by 2030 approximately it will be possible to “raise” new specialists with no more than 6 years of work experience. At the same time, the question of the training quality of such specialists remains open. And although, after rapid pre-War growth, the IT industry during the War “shrunk” in terms of customers and employees by approximately 10%. However, due to the relocation of companies, the opening of foreign offices and the industry’s resilience, the situation has stabilized and new growth begun. Therefore, the demand for IT specialists will remain at the pre-War level. Taking into account the requirements of the time, it is necessary to deploy professional and technical education in the direction of Industry 4.0, to understand what it needs, what specialists should know. And here the proactive position of the institutions themselves is important. As to Oleg Sharov, there was a “brain drain” in Ukraine all the time, the country had lost some promising professionals, but new ones appeared to replace them, and this trend will remain for the next 5-10 years. Maintaining the quality of training is an important issue in this process. In addition, the portrait of an IT professional is expected to change over the next 10 years. Automation and robotization processes will significantly change the goals of their work and their amount. The speakers shared their own vision of the “scale” of institutions that can most satisfyingly meet the needs for professionals in the growing industry. As so, Oleg Sharov starts from the fact that IT market is a highly qualified one where a criteria is a certain level of IQ. Therefore, vocational and technical education will not meet the level. Oriented to the old industrial system, such institutions are the least attractive for children with a high IQ level. Such future professionals prefer universities, where you can get fundamental knowledge, or pre-higher education, which covers basic training needs. The ideal model includes a person obtaining pre- or higher education and then switching to IT at the age of 20-30 through informal education. It is this algorithm that guarantees the flow of personnel and the needed number of professionals who are motivated to learn further and compete in the market. Instead, Ivan Dyachishyn is convinced that regulated and slower in terms of changes higher education institutions can rather act as a kind of educational hubs – platforms for students, teachers and companies where a professional gets general knowledge and interacts point by point with business. While vocational education is an easy start in IT and an opportunity to try oneself. Ideally, companies are looking for specialists with a high level of motivation and self-education. In this case, non-formal education provides specialists with specific courses focused on acquiring particular practical skills, which gives the best results. According to Mykhailo Kosmiya, in future we can expect the emergence of a symbiosis of dual and informal education with a central role of higher education institutions, which will ensure the training of high-quality specialists who will possess all the necessary hard and soft skills, as well as specialization. It is important to constantly review what specializations are needed and actively interact with the labor market and companies, as well as take into account changes in the picture of an IT specialist. Olha Osredchuk, the special guest of the event, SigmaSoftware expert, Manager of University Programs, talked about what universities for companies are and, vise verse, what is the value of interaction with companies for universities. She shared insights on how to improve the employee value proposition through collaboration with universities. You can find out more and watch the broadcast of the event on our YouTube channel by following the link. The series of ITU Public talks #Frankivsk mentoring meetings is a joint project of the Western Ukrainian representative offices of the IT Ukraine Association and UKRSIBBANK BNP Paribas Group, aimed at the development of regional IT potential, expansion of networking, exchange of experience and creative ideas.

For the second time, we have become partners of the ITU Public talks #Frankivsk project. We understand that in today’s reality it is very important to support young IT professionals in their pursuit of education. By supporting such events, BNP ParibasGroup seeks to develop not only the IT potential of the country, but also its business capabilities. UKRSIBBANK provides the full range of necessary financial services and offers favorable terms of service to IT companies and IT specialists, Maryan Khomin, Head of the Marketing Department of UKRSIBBANK BNP ParibasGroup, says.

Special thanks to our information partners UrbanSpaceRadio, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, GoIT, HappyMonday.  The next event of ITUPublic talks #Frankivsk will take place on August 26 and will be dedicated to promotion strategy through networking and team branding. We’ll talk about:

• team branding and new dimensions of positioning;
• how companies should form a team brand itself;
• networking and communities during the War;
• effective networking model;
• what new meanings networking and community building have for Ukrainian society now and what branding teams have to do with it;
• successful cases and insights.

Interesting for:

• СEO&Founders
• PR specialists
• HR specialists
• IT clusters
• Representatives of associations and communities.

Follow the updates on the Facebook page of the event.