Skopje, 30 September 2021 (MIA) – Findings of the EDU4IT project – Increasing employability in sectors with high added value through the acceleration of developmentally relevant projects, through which around 20 young people gained skills to work in the IT sector, were presented Thursday in Skopje by the Czech Ambassador Miroslav Toman, and the president of InnoHub Skopje, Dejan Deskoski. Through this program, backed by the Czech Embassy in Skopje, 23 young people from various profiles garnered the skills necessary to work in the IT sector, including innovation management, coding and software development – frontend, backend, design, product management, data privacy policy etc. the young people worked with mentors who are in charge of current company projects. The IT sector’s potential as a development generator through generating well-paid jobs and increasing export from North Macedonia was pointed out at the presentation of the project’s results. Czech Ambassador Toman reminded of the excellent relationship and cooperation between the Czech Republic and North Macedonia in many sectors, reminding that this cooperation was ongoing through the Covid pandemic as well, by donating large shipments of medical equipment and vaccines to North Macedonia from the Czech Republic. Referring to EDU4IT, he said the goal is for young people to get new skills in order to contribute to the country without moving abroad. “The Czech Embassy conducts development project in Skopje every year and I’m happy to present EDU4IT today. This project cost MKD 1.1 million which we invested into the education of 23 young people to work on IT projects. We chose this because we believed and saw that education and creating opportunities for younger generations is key to a country’s prosperity and development, which is why many of our projects are aimed at young people,” Toman pointed out. He said that they backed this project not only due to how innovative and well designed it is, but also because it provides an opportunity to strengthen cooperation between the two countries in the IT sector. “I’d like to congratulate InnoHub for the successful implementation of the project, and the participants, some of which got jobs during training, which was the idea from the get go – for us to give them knowledge and skills and to enable them to find work in the areas in which they’re skilled, and try to keep them here in the country, because they are its future,” Toman said. Dejan Deskoski said that the project was implemented as part the Czech Republic Development Program. “We formed a hybrid education model in the form an internship, under the direct guidance of experienced mentors and working on concrete, realistic projects. The participants were able to garner new skills, strengthen existing skills, which will make them directly more competitive on the labor market. All of this resulted in direct employment offers even during training. Four teams were formed which worked on innovative projects, which were led by our clients and strategic partners of the Czech Republic, and some participants were directly involved in the realization and preparation of the legal legislative for a data protection platform, and I hope that it will be realized as soon as possible,” Deskoski said. dk/ba/