The "Prospects of Information Technologies" school was founded for students of IT fields at South Ural State University. Elena Bunova, Associate Professor of the Department of Information Technology in Economics of the SUSU School of Economics and Management spoke about the formation and future plans of the “Prospects of Information Technologies” school.
– How did the “Prospects of Information Technologies” school come to be?
– A few years ago, many students did not see any prospects of working in IT in Chelyabinsk and seriously considered moving to Moscow or St. Petersburg after graduation. To attract the interest of our students, I worked with senior teacher of the Information Technology in Economics Department Vadim Kosterin to begin to organize master classes for future IT specialists at the SUSU Science recreation camp with the support of the Director of the School of Economics and Management Irina Saveleva and Head of Information Technology in Economics Department Boris Sukhovilov.
One of the first events was a conference entitled “IT Professions: a Look from the Inside”, to which we invited business partners of our department. The informal setting and conversation with practicing IT specialists of leading regional companies allowed fifty students to change their mind on working in IT in Chelyabinsk. With time, this concept of informal conversation with representatives of employers within the region grew into a full-sized project for teaching modern information technologies.
On September 17, 2019, we held the opening ceremony for the Promises of Information Technology school. This project is made possible by the support of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs Rosmolodezh. A student group who presented their story of success to participants of the event, from concept to realization, won a Rosmolodezh grant to run the school. Right now, there are more than 100 students in the school’s team.
– What are the main tasks of the “Prospects of Information Technologies” school?
– One of the main tasks that the school sets before itself is to teach students to master new instruments for software development. At our master classes, partner companies try to teach students that in the real world, they will work with more than just their programmer colleagues. Working on a project involves work in a team with designers, analysts, programmers, front-end developers, and many other specialists. It is the combined work of a team of interested individuals which makes it possible to create a complex, multifaceted product which will be of interest to consumers. I want to note that participation in the SUSU’s “Prospects of Information Technologies” school is completely free for students.
– How is the school evolving?
– Today, our students already launch various competitions and quests on information technologies, share their ideas, and bring one another into teams to help execute them, which is why in February we organized a winter school for coders called Coding Camp. Over four days, programmers from leading IT Companies of our region worked with our students at the Forest Outpost camp. The event was organized by the Information Technology in Economics Department of the SUSU School of Economics and Management alongside Xpage, Intec and Digital Element. This practically-oriented crash course was dedicated to web development. During the school, the students met with leading specialists of web design agencies, attended lectures on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP, and also participated in workshops.
I also had the idea of brining in our young IT specialists from other economic and technical fields of study. They are working on projects together and will present them to IT companies. Potential employers are impressed by the students’ work and often offer future cooperation.
– What are the prospects for development for the IT school?
– We will continue our partnership with leading IT companies: Xpage, INTEC web, Applied Technologies, FUSION 8, and more. Together, we have created a way to hold practically-oriented training for our students. For this reason, we chose two directions of work: front-end development and back-end development. The school’s preparatory session is held within the walls of the university and is dedicated to full stack web technologies. In front-end development, the students undergo intensive practical training courses on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Back-end development involves the study of JavaScript and PHP. Classes are conducted by university teachers and IT engineers, practitioners, mentors, and mentors from partner companies. The preparatory session ends with the execution of practical tasks from project partners, which can be organized into independent viable IT projects worthy of participation in grant competitions, for example, U. M. N. I. K. Students also present these projects at the main session. The next event will be held on November 22-24. After participating in the main session, students will receive invitations to complete training at the leading IT companies in the region.
Those who wish to enrol in the “Prospects of Information Technologies” school can speak with Elena Bunova via email: bunovaev[at]susu[dot]ru.