You're reading: BrainBasket Foundation prepares tech specialists to boost the market

While many talented tech students from Ukraine choose to pursue studies abroad at some point of their career, local market players launched a BrainBasket Foundation this year to fund free trainings for those who wish to study programming.

First programs started in November.

Project’s goal is preparing as many as 100,000 tech specialists by 2020 that would boost the $2 billion local information technology industry by ten times.

As an average salary in Ukraine doesn’t exceed $220, a $2,000 mean monthly payment in the tech sector may push many to change their occupation. As of now, over 55,000 engineers are employed in the industry.

Any person with minimum or no experience in IT can apply for a training with the BrainBasket Foundation. However, good knowledge of English is critical.

Ciklum, a major outsourcing company operating in Ukraine, has pledged $100,000 to the program, while Vostok Ventures, Innovecs and other funds contributed lesser amounts.

“BrainBasket doesn’t train students itself. It serves more like an education facilitator,” Liuka Lobarieva, project’s spokesperson, says. “We look for already existing educational programs in IT and help them expand, gain resources, qualified trainers and promotion.”

However, BrainBasket Foundation does not guarantee that all the graduates will get jobs after completion of the program. According to Lobarieva, trainees might be recommended for employment in the partner companies of BrainBasket – Innovecs, Waverly, Ciklum, SysIQ and others.

Oleksiy Dyshlevy, senior member of the Software Engineering faculty at the National Aviation University in Kyiv, says that the investors have a commercial interest in such a project. They would have a priority right to make job offers for the best graduates of the program.

“No matter what the outcome of the BrainBasket program is, it is still valuable from an educational prospective,” he said.

One needs to have a solid background while considering applying to the Bionic University, a tech school in Kyiv, while Brain Basket could become a school for absolute rookies, admits Yuriy Pyvovarov, executive director at Ukrainian Association of Innovation Development.

At the Bionic University, as many as nine applicants compete for a spot in the class that makes it a top-notch school, Pyvovarov adds.

“With the expected demand for 900,000 programmers in Europe for the nearest couple of years, both qualified programmers and beginners will find where to apply their skills on the job market,” he concludes.

Coding for Future

Coding for Future, a three-month course, was launched on Dec. 17 in a partnership with the State Security Service to train the refugees from the war zone in the east of Ukraine. According to BrainBasket’s Lobarieva, over 1,400 applicants are currently waiting in a queue for their applications to be processed and 55 people are studying already. 

Trainees are allocated to different study groups in various regions of the country as BrainBasket works in through partnerships with many training centers all over Ukraine. Trainers work on a voluntary basis. 

Coding for Future prepares junior test engineers, which is the initial level of expertise of an IT specialist.

Open IT

Unlike Coding for Future, Open IT is just a web portal about the tech scene, created to popularize the industry among people unfamiliar with it. 

“Even a doctor can visit the portal and learn as much as possible about IT, which might make him consider applying for a training and changing profession after all,” Lobarieva says.

Brain Academy

Brain Academy, another BrainBasket Foundation program, is to be launched in spring of 2015. Up to 20 Brain Academies will be opened in Ukraine, first ones – in Ternopil and Zaporizhya.

Program develops comprehensive study plans in various tech science destinations and provides trainings for those who teach at various schools, public or private.

After completing the Brain Academy, trainees will be able to obtain an International Coach Federation certificate that provides good employment opportunities.

Kyiv Post staff writer Bozhena Sheremeta can be reached at [email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by AVentures CapitalCiklumFISON and SoftServe.