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Elder IT Generation Believes in the Youth:
"You can find the world's best solutions"

The 20th IT Student Club Meeting was held on August 21-22 at the Writers' House in Tsaghkadzor asan initiative of the IT Club, established by X-TECH and BestBuy companies. The meeting was attended by more than 60 representatives of IT start-up firms and business associations, and held with support from the USAID-funded Competitive Armenian Private Sector (CAPS) Project, implemented by Nathan Associates Inc. Meeting topics included issues related to the establishment of new firms.

Every year, the number of IT enterprises increases; there were 200 IT companies in Armenia in 2008, and this figure increased by 60 during in the last two years. However, leading specialists in this sector believe that this growth trend is unsatisfactory, since the goal for 2018 is 1000 IT firms.

“In order to achieve such a result, it is necessary to pave the way for young IT specialists and assist in the establishment of new enterprises, so that every young specialist believes that he can start his own business. There are people of the same age that have already had success.” Armen Abrahamyan, CAPS IT Cluster Coordinator stated. He further suggested that every individual has certain skills and a desire to run a business but many avoid taking the risk. “Meetings like this help young people enrich their knowledge and encourage them to apply their skills in business” he went on.

Karen Vardanyan, Executive Director of the Union of IT Enterprises (UITE) argued the importance of the present in looking to the future. “In order to have 1000 enterprises in 8 years instead of 20-25, we must establish 250-300 new firms every year. This means that today, a real start-up boom must commence. We strive to see Armenia as a high tech country, and that will only be possible if there is a targeted movement of young technological entrepreneurs with ambitious initiatives and with high thinking specialists who offer the best solutions in the world for this or that sphere.”

Karen Vardanyan said he believes in the youth, and trusts and supports them in all their brave initiatives. “UITE is always ready to listen, cooperate and assist you” he stressed, recognizing the importance of these meetings, which have been led by the successes of the IT Leaders without Ties Forum. “Formulate your five-year goals, accurately manage your time and have ambitious goals.”

The young IT students discussed issues related to website security and protection, as well as learnt about Micro plan entrepreneurship development projects presented by the CAPS Business Development Specialist, Marina Poghosyan, who also held an accelerated 4-day course on entrepreneurship skills development on August 24-27 at the CAPS office.

During the certificate awarding ceremony, theUITE Executive Director, Karen Vardanyan, who also participated in the course, said “This was a vey important experience for us and we seek CAPS project support to make the course continuous so that other participants of the IT Club meetings can also attend. This training is the practical model of real business and is very instructive. The most important thing is that it clearly shows the difference betweenself-destruction and cooperation. Evidently, when there is cooperation, the income is ten times bigger for everyone than the biggest income in case of self-destruction.”

IT Club members intend to actively continue meetings of this format since they acknowledge the effectiveness and importance of the discussions.    

ADDRESSING THE GAP BETWEEN BUSINESS AND ACADEMIA:
Tourism and Pharmaceutical Summer Schools Start at AUA

The vast majority of employers in Armenia complain about the discrepancy between graduates’ knowledge and the skills required by businesses. Part of the reason is that in the fast-paced world educational curricula are not updated as periodically as business requirements do. To bridge this gap in tourism and pharmaceutical manufacturing sector, the USAID Competitive Armenian Private Sector (CAPS) Project, in collaboration with the American University of Armenia Extension Program, initiated two respective summer schools.

The pharmaceutical Summer School is being organized for the first time drawing on the successful experience of organizing tourism schools since 2008.

Over 40 second, third, and fourth-year students attend the Tourism Summer School. They represent the European Regional Academy, Yerevan State College of Humanities, Yerevan State Armenian-Greek College of Tourism, Service and Food Industry, Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University, Yerevan State University (YSU), State Linguistic University after V. Brusov, and the Armenian Tourism Institute.

Likewise, 30 students from Yerevan State Medical University after M.Heratsi, YSU Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Mehrabyan Medical Institute take part at the Pharmaceutical Summer school.

The participants are acquiring knowledge in their disciplines, discussing the needs of relevant specialties, learning best practices of setting up businesses in their fields, developing a strategic plan and learning to collaborate with foreign partners. “This is an ideal opportunity for me not only to gain knowledge but also get acquainted with international best practice and what I need to get a job after the University”, said one of the tourism students to the organizers.

The classes are conducted by CAPS specialists and managers of leading organizations in the fields, and will be over on July 30. Upon completion the graduates will receive certificates of participation.

“This initiative aims to develop students’ knowledge, contribute to heightened awareness of practical issues of concerned fields of study, as well as promote greater cooperation and understanding between academia and the private sector. Additionally, this is an excellent networking opportunity for students of different educational institutions majoring in the same discipline,” Anush Shahverdyan, CAPS Workforce Development Specialist says.  

About us

The CAPS project is a five year program of assistance funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). CAPS is based on a cluster approach which focuses on improving the business environment and fostering cooperation among enterprises in a particular industry sector.

The cluster concept is fundamental. Most industries include various categories of stakeholders. These stakeholders typically include: government as a regulator of commercial practices; educational institutions to prepare members of the workforce; business development services to offer consulting and other management services, and the core industry itself delivering products or services to customers… The cluster process, then, is mainly engaged in coordinating all such stakeholders in pursuit of mutually supportive objectives, most commonly in marketing and image building, improving industry-wide quality, training the workforce, and/or enacting more favorable legislation. more

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