Digital skills are essential for employability, career development and the wider digital transformation of the economy. IT retraining programmes provide an important pathway for people without previous experience in the sector to acquire practical programming knowledge, understand the basics of software development and prepare for new professional opportunities in the digital labour market.

With the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), ICEF participated as a partner of the School of Electrical Engineering in four cycles of the IT retraining programme. The programmes included more than 280 participants without prior knowledge of the IT field and provided training in programming languages such as Java, PHP, JavaScript and Python, as well as the Linux operating system.

In addition to theoretical and practical classes, participants received soft skills training and mentoring support from HR experts, helping them better understand labour market expectations and prepare for employment or career advancement. After completing the courses, participants were awarded certificates of successful completion. More than 30% of participants successfully retrained or applied the acquired knowledge in their current jobs.