Ambitious IT-education project gets rolling in Chisinau

The Ukrainian BrainBasket Foundation with the support of Western NIS Enterprise Fund and iHub Chisinau launch the social project Technology Nation in Chisinau, which is aimed to improve IT education in the region.

Technology Nation is an IT-education project of the BrainBasket Foundation, representing an alternative to public education. The project is free of charge and presupposes 2 target groups, 23-30-year-old young adults, willing to change their career by mastering an IT specialty, and 9-11-year-old kids, who will develop their logical thinking by participating in the program.

Technology Nation Adults is a programming basics course, built on the Harvard University Program. Participation does not require any prior technical skills; the only requirement is English level, which should be not lower than upper-intermediate. The training lasts 4 months in the form of blended learning, which calls for unsupervised work with online lecture content and classroom practice under the guidance of experienced mentors. It allows participants to get a good background for further learning and employment in the IT.

Technology Nation Kids is a 3-month course for schoolchildren, where they learn the basic principles of computer science and programming through gaming. The course stands on the use of “children’s” programming language Scratch (developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and is taught by practitioners.

Within a year 48 educational locations were opened in Ukraine and more than 1900 adults and 170 children were enrolled under the Technology Nation Program. Training is free of charge and does not require prior technical skills and knowledge. In Moldova, the project is launched with the support of the Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF) and iHub Chisinau. In the nearest future BrainBasket plans to launch a few extra hubs in Central and Eastern Europe.

“There are many active people in Moldova who are willing to work in IT. We are happy to provide both adults and kids with an opportunity to take the first steps in this sphere”, says Illia Onyshchenko, Project Manager at BrainBasket. “This project has proved itself well in Ukraine, we have gained experience and now we are launching this course in other countries, starting with Moldova”, he added.

“The BrainBasket Foundation is focused on international development and we are happy that Moldova became the first in the list. I believe that the project will have a positive impact not only on our would-be IT professionals who will undergo training, but also on the economy of the country as a whole”, says Volodymyr Liulka, Head of the BrainBasket Foundation.

“Improving IT education is a priority area of the Western NIS Enterprise Fund activity. The IT professionals are one of the most demanded and highly paid in Moldova, but professional training here falls short of the market requirements. That is why WNISEF together with iHub Chisinau supported the Brain Basket initiative to launch the Technology Nation School. We believe that the gained expertise will open new career prospects for participants, help in the creation of start-ups and enhance the development of the IT industry in Moldova as a whole”, notes Andrii Sorokhan, Economic Leadership Program Coordinator of Western NIS Enterprise Fund.

“iHub Chisinau is an organization that unites the local IT community, and with the support of our partners BrainBasket and WNISEF we will be able to cast a positive impact on the IT industry of the whole country. Technology Nation Moldova is an outstanding educational program, and it will surely transform the lives of its participants for the better by helping them fulfill themselves as the demanded IT professionals”, says Traian Chivriga, Head of iHub Chisinau.

In Chisinau classes will take place at a training hub, located at the iHUB space at 31 August 1989 Str, 78.

You can enroll for the program here – http://brainbasket.org/moldova