IT Expert - Lviv IT Cluster

About the project

The IT Expert project – is one of the most important educational initiatives of the Lviv IT Cluster. In cooperation with universities and IT companies of Lviv, we create and constantly modernize innovative bachelor’s programs in the tech field. Educational programs that respond to the market needs allow us to prepare graduates who do not require additional training for employment.

What distinguishes our educational programs from others?

Our programs are aimed to meet the requests of the industry, the course focuses on training the skills needed to work in IT companies, and students from the first year of study work on their own projects.

BENEFITS OF THE PROJECT

Social impact

For tech companies, the project gives an opportunity to implement their own corporate SCR strategy through in-depth support for the universities: from organizing university educational spaces to holding lectures, workshops, and other events for students.

Tech company employees’ growth

Leading specialists of IT companies can try themselves as teachers, curators, and co-authors of bachelor’s programs, and mentors in the programs of the Lviv IT Cluster. This is an opportunity not only to share experience and expertise but also to expand and systematize knowledge. IT Expert offers a lot of opportunities for companies to include in the internal career growth matrices of the employee.

Sustainable long-term development of the industry

The IT Expert project helps to develop and support the most valuable resource of Lviv IT Cluster member companies – their employees. Best graduates of the modernized programs join the Lviv IT Cluster member companies as employees and bring new ideas, knowledge, and approaches, allowing companies to reach new levels of growth.

PROJECT GOALS

To create and develop an ecosystem of higher education institutions, government, and business representatives for the innovative development of the tech industry.
To improve higher technical education in Lviv by launching new bachelor’s programs in the leading universities of the city.
To provide expert support to local universities by involving experts from IT companies that are members of the Lviv IT Cluster.
To develop professional tech skills enough to start a career in the IT industry without additional training.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

For the modernization of educational programs, the Lviv IT Cluster establishes close cooperation between its member companies and university departments. That allows involving experts in the educational process who have teaching experience and are aware of the current and future needs of the IT industry.

Fields of cooperation:

Bachelor’s programs joint update. Development of the list of graduate competencies and adding educational content to the course.
Helping students to create their own startups. Mentorship from industry experts and involvement in the project pitching.
Participation of tech companies employees in the educational process. Involvement of leading experts as curators, teachers, and guest lecturers.
Creation of new educational labs with the support of the Lviv IT Cluster members.
Monitoring the quality of bachelor’s programs in accordance with the requirements of the Lviv IT Cluster (regular review of the curriculum, feedback from experts involved in teaching or mentoring, student surveys).

Student mentoring

Student mentoring is an essential component of tech education development. Mentors from IT companies directly impact the quality of knowledge and contribute to the development of student initiatives. Therefore, as part of the IT Expert project, we initiated the creation of the Mentor Support Program.

The program’s activity and support include two key processes: supporting the mentors by the Lviv IT Cluster and by the IT companies that are involved in the program.

Thanks to the Mentors Support Program, the Mentors Community was formed – an informal community of IT specialists who regularly participate in mentoring students of Lviv IT Cluster educational programs. Each participant can be both a mentor and a mentee simultaneously as this community facilitates the exchange of mentoring experiences, developing personal specialist skills, and networking among like-minded people.

Benefits of participation in Mentors Community from the Lviv IT Cluster:

Training of soft skills and team leadership
Support from the Lviv IT Cluster team (on all issues concerning the educational process)
An opportunity of networking with colleagues
Certificates from the Lviv IT Cluster
Involvement in our promotional activity (article on the website or in the ITID LVIV magazine)
Photo of the mentor on the website of the Lviv IT Cluster
Free ticket to the IT Arena conference
Branded sweatshirt of the IT Expert

Benefits from IT companies:

Companies supporting the employees’ mentoring within the Lviv IT Cluster educational programs are developing an individual motivation system.

We recommend that companies include students’ mentoring in a career growth matrix.

LABS

The Lviv IT Cluster, together with tech companies, opened 4 innovative student labs at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and Lviv Polytechnic National University.

1. Internet of things lab in Lviv Polytechnic National University

Companies that contributed the most are PLVision, SoftServe, Ciklum and Cypress. Other sponsors are Eleks, Sombra, KindGeek, Vakoms, V.I.Tech, Lohika, GlobalLogic, Intellias, N-iX, Conscensia, Perfectial, and Vector Software.

2. Infopulse Data Science & Machine Learning Lab in Ivan Franko National University of Lviv

Created with the financial support of Infopulse for Data Science & Intelligent Systems students.

3. “Projecting and constructing IoT lab” in Lviv Polytechnic National University

General partners are Sigma Software and SoftServe, exclusive partner PLVision, gold partners Intellias, Perfectial, Conscensia, and silver partner is Vakoms.