IT education 2017 in Ukraine: trends, prospects, difficulties

Ukrainian developers have been known for their high level of tech expertise. Since a huge fuss has been going on the future of IT outsourcing globally, local IT market shows strong a rapid growth in the number of specialists, graduates, and technologies. Due to huge demand for the developers and architects, the supply of the young specialists is also growing.

Trends among the Ukrainian IT students

A vast number of graduates this year have claimed programming to be their main priority due to the development and very promising future of the industry in Ukraine. Today, many students combine university education with part-time job aiming at getting more practical experience outside the university – the so-called dual education. School leaving exams have finished, and, we can discuss how the Ukrainian students have been making their choices and compare their preference for the future. Moreover, this is a great chance for them to work with foreign clients, mainly from the USA, Canada, and Western Europe. Many young people also view work in IT a perfect opportunity to share knowledge and get experience from the specialists worldwide. Secondly, a high salary is another attraction for the modern youth. However, only a few understand the whole scope of issues and trades necessary for becoming a high-paid and qualified specialist. And, finally, the trend, quite common for the western countries, which has recently come to Ukraine and received support from the Ministry of Education, is the matter of dual education that allows the students study and work at the same time. The mechanism of such education has not yet been well-developed but the fundamentals have been established.

"... working in IT is a great chance for them to work with foreign clients, mainly from the USA, Canada, and Western Europe"

A vast number of graduates this year have claimed programming to be their main priority due to the development and very promising future of the industry in Ukraine. Today, many students combine university education with part-time job aiming at getting more practical experience outside the university – the so-called dual education. School leaving exams have finished, and, we can discuss how the Ukrainian students have been making their choices and compare their preference for the future. Moreover, this is a great chance for them to work with foreign clients, mainly from the USA, Canada, and Western Europe. Many young people also view work in IT a perfect opportunity to share knowledge and get experience from the specialists worldwide. Secondly, a high salary is another attraction for the modern youth. However, only a few understand the whole scope of issues and trades necessary for becoming a high-paid and qualified specialist. And, finally, the trend, quite common for the western countries, which has recently come to Ukraine and received support from the Ministry of Education, is the matter of dual education that allows the students study and work at the same time. The mechanism of such education has not yet been well-developed but the fundamentals have been established.

This year Ukrainian IT market met up to 40K new graduates from both universities and private IT schools. Today, many students prefer taking tech courses instead of entering the university and spend another 6 years studying. Many young people criticize the Ukrainian educational system calling it outdated and ineffective, the experienced specialists today say that it is a must-have to reach high in the modern IT market. Many universities have established a tight relationship with IT companies and often invite the specialists to lecture the students and share some practical experience. Along with that, students are often invited to take part in master classes and conferences which also help to make useful acquaintances and learn lots of new things from their senior colleagues.

The only thing being hard to predict is the main directions to study today. PHP and Java are of gray popularity, yet it is worth paying attention to Big Data and AI since the researchers and scientist view these as the main IT trends for the forthcoming decade. Another tendency observed is the growing number of female specialists joining IT not only as support staff or management but also web programming and development. Compared to the last year the number has grown by 2% - there are over 20% of women today.

Division of IT employees according to their education

Generally, not all the specialists working in IT market of Ukraine are developers – the statistics show that almost 55% are programmers, whilst the others work in sales, testing, human resource management, etc. As to the education, only 70% of all the IT industry staff has taken the technical programming education, others come from economic, management departments.

The Ukrainian IT industry has faced significant challenges lately due to the changes in the political arena, visa-free entering the EU zone countries. Obviously, more changes are yet to come, however, for now, the industry is only showing growth and stability. More and more clients are willingly coopewrating with the Ukrainain IT comapnies, therefore, new vistas are opening for the future programmers as well.

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