Earlier this month the BrainBasket Foundation, a Ukrainian NGO established in 2014 to support IT education in the country, launched its national education program Technology Nation.
Offered free of charge, the program combines courses on programming from leading international technology universities, including Harvard and the MIT, with practical exercises led by experienced mentors. Involving no less than 800 participants, the program will take place in 23 Ukrainian cities, in partnership with local IT communities and city authorities.
“The program turned out to be very demanded. Since the announcement, we received more than 23,000 applications. We had to select the first group of participants not only by application forms but also randomly,” the foundation stated.
The foundation says that it has received support from the Ukrainian President’s administration as wall as a range of Ukrainian and global tech firms. These include AMC Bridge, Bakotech, Ciklum, GlobalLogic, HeadHunter, Innovecs, Luxoft, MacPaw, Microsoft, Terrasoft, TheAppSolutions, Galaktika Corporation. Many people have offered their own equipment to the libraries.
The foundation is looking for volunteers to become mentors in the program or offer second-hand computers to equip the libraries.
In a recent interview with Ukraine Digital News, the foundation’s CEO Vladimir Liulka shared his vision of the issues and prospects of Ukraine’s technical education system, and explained the goals of his organization (see UADN’s Ukraine IT report, part 1).
