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.