Karen Vardanyan presented certain points of UITE strategic development program

ArmInfo. Until 2019-2020 years, Union of IT Companies (UITE) intends to provide every engineering school in Armenia with an engineering circle, where children from 9- 10 years old, in addition to engineering education, will be able to gain knowledge in the field of mechatronics, 3D modeling, materials handling, etc., within the framework of new program of strategic development. This July 5, at a press conference, the head of UITE Karen Vardanyan said, noting that for the time being there are 200 such circles in Armenia for the time being.

According to the expert, the implementation of such an initiative will allow until 2023-2024 to increase the number of specialists in this industry up to 40-50 thousand. In this connection, he noted that with the previous Government an agreement was reached to create engineering circles, within the framework of which the authorities committed to open engineering circles of equal number created by the Union, and also to assume obligations on payment of salaries to employees of circles. However, according to him, today this process is suspended.

At the same time, Vardanyan informed that the  plans of the Union also include the development of "real schools" in which students aged 15-18 can, in addition to free education in practice, apply the knowledge they have gained. According to him, today within the framework of this initiative, UITE has already attracted 20 participants, and this year another 60 people are expected to replenish. The expert noted that the new strategy of the Union envisages the creation of "real schools" in other cities of the republic, in particular, in Vanadzor, Gyumri, Goris, Kapan, Gavar, etc.

At the same time, Vardanyan noted the acute shortage of experts in the scientific fields, which resulted in the emergence of capable students from universities in connection with the admission to work in IT company. In this regard, the expert said that UITE intends to implement a program in which the talented youth will be selected to gain the necessary knowledge so that later students can engage in scientific work, rather than work for an IT company.

Particularly, he stressed that UITE strategy also implies development of cooperation with the military- industrial complex of  Armenia and increase of recognition of Armenia in the international arena through the platform whyarmenia.am, where the potential of Armenian engineering (Surprising engineering), which, according to the expert, has a thousand-year history.