DT-ITS Start Program

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Deutsche Telekom IT Solutions  (DT-ITS), Hungary’s largest information and communications technologies (ICT) employer, works – through a carefully planned, long-term strategy – to achieve a position where, as a result of cooperation between the Hungarian education system and the business sphere, the Hungarian economy becomes more competitive, and there is a suitable supply of trained recruits as well.

Besides DT-ITS’s close contacts with Hungarian institutions of higher education, the company’s Start program was launched in 2020 to provide support for high school students studying IT. The program based on cooperation with educational institutions builds on elements that help both teachers and students (and their parents) find out about the opportunities of the Hungarian and global ICT sector and gain marketable, competitive knowledge.

In phase 1 of the Start program DT-ITS established cooperation with secondary schools in the surrounding areas of two of the company’s premises, in Pécs and Debrecen. Total number of schools participating in the cooperation is now 35.

Within the program DT-ITS not only supplies the competitive training material but also ensures that students receive professional practice, specialist language training and even career opportunities for the brightest.

Those institutions taking part in the program are provided professional assistance in compiling IT course material that is practical in its orientation, integrated into today’s market processes and simulates real-life competitive situations, as well as in the establishment of modern IT labs and the realization of specialist competitions and school programs.

In Fall 2017, a unique initiative was launched in Budapest to expand the program, based on a cooperation agreement with the Budapest Technical Vocational Training Center. The center supervises several member institutions, the 5 most relevant of which were covered by the contract. The company was the first in the country to join secondary education, and now several DT-ITS colleagues teach weekly at Lajos Petrik Bilingual School.

Tours of the company, roadshows and competitions are arranged to give students an insight into the workings of an ICT enterprise. Furthermore, these young people can also see how people working at DT-ITS go about their tasks in the corporate environment and what the atmosphere is like.

The most important objectives of the Start program launched by DT-ITS are as follows:

  • the appropriate positioning of the ICT sector both among students and their parents who are particularly influential when it comes to making career choices;
  • providing students with practical knowledge that has a real value on the labor market, with which they can gain not only work but career opportunities, too.
  • DT-ITS plans to expand the Start Program by involving a further minimum 10 new secondary schools in the next coming academic year.