Tech4Armenia: IT specialists will be able to teach children in Armenian communities and work remotely in their companies

The problem of staff shortages in information technology sector today is solved in different ways. Most companies take the easiest route and try to lure employees from other companies, promising them higher salaries and more attractive working conditions. 

The authors of Tech4Armenia, a new project within Teach For Armenia, are sure that this approach will not solve the problem, and if we want the country to have more good specialists, they need to be raised – from their school years. After all, if children do not have the opportunity to learn math, physics, and other sciences at the proper level, tomorrow they will not be able to become good professionals and find a place in the labor market, and the problem of staff shortages will only become more acute.

Coordinator of Tech For Armenia Gor Nazaryan told NEWS.am TECH that Armenia currently lacks more than 700 teachers, especially those who can teach mathematics and other sciences. And while there are still at least some teachers in Yerevan, the situation in the regions and Artsakh is much worse.

Tech4Armenia will be able to solve this problem as much as possible. In the frame of this program, the IT specialists will be able to temporarily move to the marzes (regions) of the country, from where they will work remotely in their companies or according to a flexible schedule and teach in schools subjects, in which they are well versed. Their employment under the program will be 15 hours per week, of which eight hours will be spent on teaching itself, and seven – on various extracurricular activities and projects.

The first teacher-leader in the projects will be an expert from Renderforest, who is currently undergoing special retraining. In September, he will go to one of the marzes in the country – it is not yet known which one – where he will teach children in school.

"His experience will show other people that you can work in IT, but not in a cool office in the center of Yerevan, but in the marzes, creating an ecosystem around you, which can break the chain of staff shortage in the country," said Gor Nazaryan.

Are IT companies willing to let their employees work remotely, from marzes, and teach at the same time?

According to Gor Nazaryan, when Teach For Armenia was established, few people believed that anyone would want to leave the comfortable life in the capital and go to the marzes to educate children. In the first year, only 14 people applied to Teach For Armenia. But today the situation has radically changed: last year 1575 people have turned to the authors of the project, who have expressed their desire to teach, and last September 120 of them went to marzes. This year the initiative has already received more than 1800 applications. 

Every year the project grows and the authors are sure this will also be true for Tech4Armenia: this year only one person will go to marzes in the framework of the project. However, his example will certainly be contagious and next year will bring much more people, so the specialists will be able to choose those who have the necessary knowledge and qualities to teach.

As for the readiness of IT companies to cooperate with the project, according to Gor Nazaryan, some companies have reacted very positively to the idea and have already expressed their readiness. Among the first was Instigate. 

"Companies should understand that the education field cannot be in a parallel reality, because our tomorrow depends on it. There are about 4000 vacancies in IT today and there are no specialists to fill them. Each company must understand whether it wants to contribute to a fundamental solution to this problem. Or just want to ‘import’ employees from other countries, or engage in ‘headhunting’, luring in other people's employees, artificially raising wages? Just imagine: if specialists work with high school students, involve them in their projects, and give them practical skills, in three-five years we can get excellent results in the form of a ready-made staff," he said.

Not everyone can teach

A person can be a good specialist in any field, but it does not necessarily mean that he can competently and correctly transfer his knowledge to children. It is not incidental that out of 1575 applicants only 120 went to the marzes last September to teach children.

According to Gor Nazaryan, even with the current shortage of teachers in Armenia, the process of selecting potential teachers within the framework of Teach For Armenia (and now Tech4Armenia) is strict and complicated. Those who are selected complete a special seven-week intensive course, where they learn how to work with students, how to teach, and how to spark interest in a subject.

"If a person is willing and ready to step out of their comfort zone and learn, improve, and teach others, our team will make sure they have everything they need to succeed,” he said.

The project also has a summer camp for children, where these professionals can work with these children, get feedback from the project mentors, and improve their skills and knowledge.

Community kids are future teachers

Teach For Armenia has been working for more than nine years, and during this time there have been many cases when students from distant communities, inspired by the teachers who came to them within the project, graduated from universities and became teachers themselves within the same project, but already in other marzes, in other communities.

"We have to understand that Armenia's greatest potential is its people, and these people are all over Armenia, not just in the center of Yerevan. There is life outside Cascade, the Square, and other beautiful places – I like them a lot myself, but there is life outside these places too, and we have to work every day, otherwise, it will be worse. Today we are talking about a teacher shortage. Today more than 50% of teachers are close to retirement age, and if we don't solve this issue now, tomorrow everything will be even worse," said Gor Nazaryan.

Article body photos by teachforarmenia.org