STIKK and USAID’s EMPOWER Private Sector signed a grant agreement to support STIKK Education
Pristina – Today, the Kosovo Association of Information and Communications Technology (STIKK) and USAID’s EMPOWER Private Sector signed a grant agreement that will support a training and internship in ICT program for youth.
“In 2014, STIKK published a report on ICT Sector Skills Gap Analysis, which highlighted that there is a strong domestic market and export market demand for ICT service providers,” says Vjollca Çavolli, STIKK Executive Director. “However, there is a major obstacle to realizing this opportunity: lack of educated professionals in Kosovo in a range of ICT profiles, such as software programming and coding, even ICT business administration and marketing. This puts Kosovo service providers at a competitive disadvantage, especially in getting outsourcing jobs from EU buyers.”
This training and internship program to be launched by STIKK as part of its STIKK Education consists of two 6-month training cycles to take place in 2015 – 2016. The program covers software and mobile applications programming that complies with the European e-Competence Framework 3.0, which ensures international standards and certification for defined ICT skills profiles.
The program targets unemployed youth interested in pursuing careers in ICT. Therefore, the training participants will be linked with companies in Kosovo that will provide internship opportunities and subsequently job placements for them.
The activity is co-funded by USAID’s EMPOWER Private Sector, the Norwegian Embassy, and GIZ. It is expected that as a result of the training, 70 new jobs will be created, and the program will support the STIKK Education to achieve sustainability.
