Great interest in attending the new online IT Retraining Program

More women among the attendees - for the first time

June 21, 2022
Woman using computer for online work
UNDP

Belgrade, June 21, 2022 - Nearly 1,500 applications followed the publicly announced Invitation to participate in the new online program "Retraining for IT" last month.

This program is organized by the Prime Minister's Office in partnership with the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs and the The Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Of the 1,489 registered candidates, almost 55% are women. This is very important considering that the majority of employees in the IT sector in Serbia, as well as in many other countries in the world, are men. One of the goals of this phase of the "Retraining for IT" program was to involve more women and support them to use their potentials, improve their IT skills and facilitate their employment in this fast-growing and higher-earning sector.

The first round of testing of registered candidates began on June 15, through the online platform of the Institute for Education Quality and Evaluation and includes tests of personality, intelligence, algorithmic literacy, logical reasoning and problem solving, as well as an English language test. The purpose of this test is to determine which of the registered candidates best meets the requirements of the competition.

Based on the test results, selected 400 candidates will get the opportunity to go through at least 250 hours of professional training in programming languages, plus 40 hours of training in ‘soft' skills (writing a CV, preparing for a job interview, workplace communication) and 120 hours of practice.

Training courses will be conducted during this and next year, and will be held online, so that participants from all over Serbia can acquire new IT knowledge and skills right at their homes.

These trainings are a continuation of a successful initiative launched at the suggestion of the Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabić. Since 2017, thanks to the "IT Retraining" program, more than 2,200 students have been trained thus far. After the trainings, around 35% of students were employed in the IT sector, with an initial salary of close to 70 thousand dinars. During 2019 and 2020, the first round of "Retraining for IT for people with disabilities" program was held, resulting in employment of 30% of its students.