23.12.2015

Cross-Border Cooperation – The first meeting between the two parties

The CBC project aims for socio-economic development of the municipality of Istog and Berane, where the main goals are to develop a sustainable economy pushing innovation and entrepreneurship in the tourism industry.

The first meeting was organized on 03.12.2015 between the two sides in Berane, which mainly discussed ways of cooperation between the two parties addressing common solutions.

STIKK together with NGO Syri i Vizionit will implement the project activities in Kosovo and the Tourism Organisation of Montenegro together with Crnogorski IT Klaster are committed to the implementation of activities designed for Montenegro.

More about the project will follow in 2016.

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16.12.2015

Training opportunities in Information Technology for unemployed youngsters

Prishtina, December 15th, 2015 – The Kosovo Association of Information and Communication Technology (STIKK) officially launched its ICT trainings based project for young people, which will be implemented by STIKK.

The project launch has been welcomed and highly appreciated by the national institutions: : Minister for Labour and Social Welfare Mr. Arban Abrashi, Deputy Minister for Economic Development Mrs. Besa Zogaj-Gashi, furthermore and donors who have made it possible to design this programme: Norwegian Ambassador to the Republic of Kosovo Mr. Jan Braathu, United States Ambassador to the Republic of Kosovo Mr. Greg Delawie, and GIZ representative Mrs. Elena Lau.

“This programme will offer 6 month long cycles of trainings in Software Engineering, Mobile Development, and IT Management” said Mrs. Vjollca Çavolli, Executive Director of STIKK. Besides the trainings, the young IT enthusiasts will get the opportunity to become interns at local companies.

This training programme is a result of the huge request of the local labour market and the outsourcing market for qualified software engineers, mobile developers, and IT managers. These requests have been found during the latest ICT skills gap analysis by STIKK.

This activity is co-financed by GIZ, the Norwegian Embassy, and USAID’s Empower Private Sector.

Increasing the Employment of youngsters in ICT
STIKK Education has been designed to specifically address the obstacles concerning skill-development and training. STIKK Education brings together all of the IT training opportunities already provided by STIKK, with a host of new IT programmes and initiatives. Its vision is to increase the local capabilities in the sector of ICT through professional and competent trainings, specifically designed to meet the needs of the local industry, while keeping on with international technology trends.

STIKK Education will implement 2 training cycles and other supplementary project activities as foreseen in the activity plan below in a 12-month period 2015–2016. Through the trainings, the young IT enthusiasts will gain specific skill-sets that are currently key on the local and European Union market by successfully mastering over curricula that are in full compliance with the European e-Competence Framework 3.0, which is an initiation of multi-stakeholders from the European ICT sector in order to identify and standardize skills that are currently needed in the market, and which has also been prioritized by the local ICT companies to implement.

Additionally, these 90 young IT enthusiasts will complete guaranteed internship programs within 1 year at STIKK member companies through the internship pool/student placement service of STIKK, which will help them put to practice the newly acquired skills and showcase their skills to potential employers.

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Launching event of STIKK Education – 15/12/2015 @ ICK

We would like to invite you to our STIKK Education Launching Event, which will take place on December 15th, 2015, at 10:00, at the Innovation Centre Kosovo (ICK).

This project is supported by GIZ, Norwegian Embassy, and USAID. We are glad to have with us the Norwegian Ambassador Mr. Jan Braathu, the US ambassador Mr. Greg Delawie, the Minister of Labour and Social Welfar, Mr. Arban Abrashi and many more.

You can find the Agenda and some additional information here: Launch Event Agenda.

What is STIKK Education?
STIKK Education has been designed to specifically address the obstacles concerning skilldevelopment and training. STIKK Education brings together all of the IT training opportunities already provided by STIKK, with a host of new IT programmes and initiatives. Its vision is to increase the local capabilities in the sector of ICT through professional and competent trainings, specifically designed to meet the needs of the local industry, while keeping on with international technology trends.

STIKK Education will implement 2 training cycles and other supplementary project activities as foreseen in the activity plan below in a 12-month period 2015–2016. Through the trainings, the young IT enthusiasts will gain specific skill-sets that are currently key on the local and European Union market by successfully mastering over curricula that are in full compliance with the European e-Competence Framework 3.0, which is an initiation of multi-stakeholders from the European ICT sector in order to identify and standardize skills that are currently needed in the market, and which has also been prioritized by the local ICT companies to implement.

Additionally, these 90 young IT enthusiasts will complete guaranteed internship programs within 1 year at STIKK member companies through the internship pool/student placement service of STIKK, which will help them put to practice the newly acquired skills and showcase their skills to potential employers.

We look forward to meeting you.

Launch Event – Agenda: https://stikk.org/fileadmin/user_upload/STIKK_Education_Launch_Event_09_12_2015_EN_vFinal.pdf

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11.12.2015

Workshops for STIKK Export Promotion Service (EPS) & STIKK Innovation Hub

During the first week of December 2015, STIKK organized 2 workshops for its services, respectively STIKK Export Promotion Service (EPS) and STIKK Innovation Hub.

STIKK Export Promotion Service (EPS)

Export Promotion Service (EPS) workshop was organized at STIKK in co-operation with GIZ. Mr. Lucas Von Zallinger was the facilitator of this workshop, honing Export Promotion Services for STIKK and its partners in the context of ICT.

Different partners participated in the workshop including Cacttus, LINK PLUS IT, ADAPTIV IT, ASSECO.

The outcomes of the workshop were threefold:

– STIKK’s EPS and its operations have shown that there is a problem with market research/business intelligence for the ICT sector in Kosovo.
– Another problem that occupies companies amidst this industry is internal communication and its implications in the workplace.
– Lack of feedback from provided business leads is an ongoing operational disturbance for STIKK.

The workshop and its continuity will support STIKK and its partners with tackling these barriers that hinder operations for the normal functioning of the service of the organization.

STIKK Innovation Hub

The main goal of the Workshop was the promotion of Innovation Hub which would increase the growth of different sectors in the Kosovo market.

The first industry appointed for digital solutions is the Agriculture industry where finding common grounds between IT companies and Agriculture companies and how Information Technology can help the agro industry is the idea behind the STIKK Innovation Hub for this particular industry.

Capgemini with Lucas Von Zallinger who was the facilitator of this Workshop which was held at STIKK.

ICT companies and Agro companies together with various representatives of the Agriculture industry were part of this Workshop session where various points were discussed:

– Starting the cooperation and getting to know each other (Kick-off)
– Understanding customer needs in agriculture and tourism industry
– Learning about the capabilities and portfolio of the Kosovo IT industry
– Promoting digital innovation in agriculture and tourism
– Defining joint methodology and next steps

The main topic and barriers encountered were: The digital transformation of the Agriculture industry and the difficulties of following operations for transformation purposes. The core problem is the insufficient financial returns for the applied operations and services for digitalizing the agro industry.

This Innovation HUB Workshop and upcoming future ones will be an attempt to come up with solutions to the problems pertaining the convergence between the IT and Agro industry and how can this be financial viable and profitable.

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