The project “National Education Framework for Enhancing IT Students’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship” is a part of the Tempus program and aims at strengthening cooperation between educational institutions, research institutes and business in Ukraine. The project started in October, 2012 and will be running until October, 2015.
Among the project partners are representatives of Sigma Technology and Sigma Software, IKEA, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Linnaeus University (Sweden), Dublin City University (Ireland), Oxford Brookes University (UK), Pedro Nunes Institute (Portugal) and five Ukrainian universities.
An objective of the project is to provide strategic support and lasting impact on Ukrainian higher education in establishing a structural change towards an educational system that promotes students’ creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship in the IT-related degree programs. This includes extensive promotion of building a knowledge triangle which implies cooperation between business, university and student. The knowledge triangle was tested in practice during the last year. The results of this project became one of the top priority topics discussed during the Tempus annual meeting.
“The so-called knowledge triangle concept was proposed by Sigma back in 2013,” shares Artem Petrenko, Strategic Alliance Manager at Sigma Software. “The concept foresaw building a strong link between educational programs, researchers and companies. The aim is to enable Ukrainian universities to be more aligned to the labor market and its real needs.”
Sigma together with IKEA started a joint project where students of Kharkiv University of Radio Electronics and Linnaeus University were working on IKEA project, while Sigma provided mentor`s help.
“Sigma’s experts collaborated on this project mentoring students and helping them to establish the efficient working and development processes,” says Niklas Malmros, President at Sigma Technology Solutions. “Such tripartite partnership brings benefits to all parties involved. IT companies get access to the talent pool of students, universities enhance the quality of graduates, and students obtain experience, while working on real projects.”