What is dual education, and how does SoftServe contribute to it

The development of Ukrainian IT education is strategically important for the company. SoftServe has been cooperating with Ukrainian universities for a long time and continues to work with partners on various educational programs.

For the past three years, the company has been trying to combine two environments: business and academic, to develop an ecosystem where students at the university can combine theoretical studying with practical work in companies.

What is dual education?

By cooperating with the universities SoftServe tries to combine two environments: business and academia to develop an ecosystem where students at the university can work. And their work for a company is credited towards their academic results.

The program balances work projects and academic workloads. In the first two years students focus on fundamental education and starting from the third year they learn to implement their knowledge and skills in the company.

The main reason for implementing dual education is that students tend to start working earlier every year. And with online education, this trend has only gotten stronger. Statistically, each third second-year student is already working.

To ensure that students do not neglect their education, universities and companies must work together to provide training. After all, basic education is vital for students to grow in their future careers and accomplish more complex tasks.

Where dual education programs are available?

Ukrainian students are now very motivated and result-oriented, and their desire to get a job as soon as possible is one of the reasons why they are responding so well to such initiatives.

The company does not insist that students continue working at SoftServe after completing their training. SoftServe’s objective is for them to want to stay. That’s why the company organizes various activities and meetings to show benefits from different angles so that the students learn what SoftServe is all about.

Dual education programs are available at Lviv Polytechnic National University (Artificial Intelligence and Applied Mathematics faculties) and Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (Electronics, Applied Mathematics, and Informatics faculties), at IT Step University. Up to 1,000 students study in these programs in Lviv.

In 2022 SoftServe started cooperation on dual education programs in universities in Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Kyiv. Find more about dual education programs here.

Why should IT-companies work closely with universities?

For the past 15 years, SoftServe has been running its own training programs integrated into SoftServe University. However, having gained extensive experience, the company realized it was time to take things to a new level where it is ready to influence the educational infrastructure in Ukraine and set an example of how to collaborate with universities.

Internationally, companies commonly work closely with universities to train talent. The university’s role is not only to provide a competitive educational program but also to prepare graduates with practical skills. That is why we are designing one of the most effective formats of university-business collaboration – Dual Education Programs.

Mutual support between IT businesses and academia builds a bridge between professional and educational standards for them to complement each other: the university provides fundamental education and the company – practical expertise. The students in such an ecosystem become not only knowledge consumers, but managers of their own educational experience. The interaction model within these programs involves building a holistic and complex learning experience for program participants. For example, we are moving away from the company presence on one-off events and jointly designing start-to-finish program solutions. SoftServe is a company with Ukrainian roots.

SoftServe founders are graduates of Ukrainian universities. Therefore, The Board of Directors and founders believe that the development of Ukrainian IT education is strategically important for the company.

It is crucial to the company that future specialists, we might hire, acquire the most relevant knowledge and graduate from university with the highest level of professional experience. After all, now we are working on students’ conscious understanding of the education process from the very beginning as well as the “applicability” of the specialization they are acquiring.