The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine continue to transform IT education in Ukraine. Leading IT companies, business associations, public and international organizations, projects, higher education institutions, and IT clusters, including Lviv IT Cluster, have joined the workgroup on the IT education reform.
According to the expert analysis of the Economic recovery center and the survey of workgroup members, the Ukrainian technology industry has more than 200,000 specialists and ranks second in East-Central Europe. In 4 years, the number of specialists has doubled, which leads to an increase in the sector by 20%, which provokes greater demand for specialists; hence, by 2030, the field will need at least 500-600 thousand IT professionals.
About 25,2 thousand IT specialists graduate from Ukrainian higher education institutions every year, and this number is much higher than in Poland, Romania, or Bulgaria. With the growing popularity of IT and other technical specialties, improved quality of maths in schools, and reduced geographical and gender gap, the potential number of students opting for tech degrees could increase to 70,000 per year.
The vocational educational institutions have in total around 6,7 thousand graduates each year. Even though the total number of junior graduates in IT has hardly changed over the last five years, the share of IT specialists has increased from 4.5% to 6.4%, which indicates positive changes in the industry.
Lviv IT Cluster is an active promoter of education development in Lviv. Making Lviv the hub of technical education is one of the association’s primary goals. For more than five years, Lviv IT Cluster and its member companies have been modernizing Bachelor’s programs at three universities in Lviv: Ivan Franko National University in Lviv, Lviv Polytechnic National University, and Lviv State University of Life Safety. Having combined efforts, they have already launched 17 innovative programs with more than 3,000 students.
In addition, Lviv IT Cluster, in cooperation with IT companies experts, started implementing Lviv IT Cluster Academy, a project aimed at vocational school reformation. Within the collaboration with partners and vocational school №29, the “Information Processing and Software Operator” curriculum is being updated, allowing students to enter the institution after the ninth grade and get a job that would fit the market’s needs.
Thanks to its extensive experience in the transformation of tech education, Lviv IT Cluster, in cooperation with the workgroup members, joins the expert evaluation and IT education strategy development.