Information Technologies in Innovation Business (ITIB), 7-9 October, 2015, Kharkiv, Ukraine

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
INTERNATIONAL TRAINING CENTRE OF
STARTUPS
Nataliya Bilous1, Yury Timoshenko2, Svetlana Antoshchuk3
1
Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics
2
Institute for Applied System Analysis of NTUU "KPI"
3
Odessa National Polytechnic University
Ukraine
1
bilous.n.v@gmail.com, 2yury.alex.tym@gmail.com, 3svetlana_onpu@mail.ru com

Abstract— Key priorities for the universities interaction and
cooperation in the framework of the Tempus project are
considered. The student outsourcing as a form of cooperation
with universities is a crucial one for the joint inter-university
research projects, development of solutions for the industry in
Ukraine, better use of existing universities’ and enterprises’
resources
Keywords— Сooperation between universities and industry, IT
education, quality of IT education, student outsourcing, practical
training of students, Outsourcing Scientific Training Production
Centers (OSTPC)
I. INTRODUCTION
Investment in education and training for skills
development is essential to boost growth and competitiveness,
determine the market capacity of Ukraine (UA) to increase
productivity etc. In long-term prospects the skills can trigger
innovation, creation of value-added industries, stimulate the
concentration of higher level skills in UA and shape the future
labor market. The Ukrainian higher education (HE) and
training systems continue to fall short of providing the right
skills for employability, and do not work adequately with
business or employers to bring the learning experience closer
to the reality of the working environment. These skills
mismatches are a growing concern for the UA IT industry's
competitiveness.
However, the Ukrainian IT industry, being one of the most
innovative, has a good prospects for the development. On the
other hand, the level and degree of the IT development
directly depends on the IT training level within the national
education system [1-3].
High quality requirements for the IT education are as
follows: the specifics of the IT-industry, using the only
resource, is the intelligence of those who work; the dynamics
of the IT industry that requires constant updating of
knowledge; a widespread introduction of the newest IT into
the industry on the innovation basis; a high demand for
professionals not only in the IT industry, but also in the
innovative enterprises, etc. [4, 5].
Increasing requirements for IT education involve also the
introduction of new approaches to the management of the
educational process, namely, the introduction of new
organizational forms of interaction of Ukrainian and foreign
universities, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the
interaction of the universities with the IT industry occupies an
important place.
Over the last decade a significant impact on this interaction
has been exerted by the Tempus program in Ukraine, aimed at
improving HE systems in the partner countries through
cooperation with EU institutions.
Ukrainian universities are involved in dozens of different
Tempus projects, aimed at modernization of the UA HE
systems taking into account the best EU traditions.
We consider one of the best examples of such Tempus
projects, the one named IHSITOP: 530319-TEMPUS-1-2012-
1-DE-TEMPUS-JPHES “Innovation hybrid strategy of IT-
outsourcing Partnership with Enterprises” [6-7], involving
four leading universities of UA: Kharkiv National University
of Radio Electronics (KNURE), Chernihiv National
Technological University (ChNTU), Odessa National
Polytechnic University (ONPU) and the Institute for Applied
System Analysis of NTUU "KPI" (IASA).
The purpose of this paper is to summarize the experience
of interaction between the universities and enterprises.
II. СOOPERATION BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND INDUSTRY
Higher educational institutions of Ukraine annually turn
out more than 15 thousand experts in the field of information
technologies (among them about a half work in the specialty)
at the requirement of about 25 thousand per year. Thus, for
nearly a decade, the demand of the industry in IT specialists
has exceeded the supply twice in Ukraine. Deficiency of IT
specialists compels the industry and universities to look for
new mechanisms of interaction and to initiate new forms of
cooperation.
It should be noted that the level of сooperation between
universities and enterprises is an important indicator of the

978-1-5090-0234-4/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

 Nataliya Bilous, Yury Timoshenko, Svetlana Antoshchuk
level of innovative economic development. Thus, a
considerable attention is paid to increasing the level of such
cooperation in the leading countries of the world. It should be
noted that the developed countries of the world considered this
type of cooperation in the triangle "Universities – the Industry
– the State".
In Ukraine, despite a number of positive examples, the
current cooperation between higher education institutions and
industry has no global character and has practically no serious
support of the state [2].
Among the problems, hindering the development of
industry and education partnerships, the following can be
identified: the lack of incentives for employers to invest in
education; the lack of tax incentives for companies that invest
in training; the lack of the state programs aimed at the
interaction between business and education; the lack of the
legislative base for the participation of employers in the
formation of educational standards; the lack of long-term
programs of personnel policy of enterprises; the lack of
modern training of students in universities.
It is needless to say that to solve these problems it is
necessary to form the public policy and receive
methodological, financial and legal support. These processes
are at early stages in Ukraine. As a rule, the initiative of
cooperation between industry and universities is not supported
by the state and carried out under direct contracts on
cooperation between university and enteprise. Typically, the
goals of such cooperation are as follows:
– Increase in the value and prestige of education in the
IT field;
– Promotion of convergence of IT education, science,
production and business for more effective development of
economy of Ukraine;
– Adoption of high quality standards of IT education
that enhance the prestige of the Ukrainian eeducation and
sscience of Ukraine and specialists in the world market.
Achieving these goals is ensured by means of the
university according to the company long-term contracts,
which provide:
– modern software and hardware for the needs of the
University;
– joint development of new curricula, new courses and
laboratory workshops;
– participation of partner companies in the theoretical
training of students (lectures, workshops), in the state
certification committee, in scientific research and publications;
– organization and conduction of job fairs, company
presentations, excursions, scientific and practical conferences,
seminars, round tables that involve employers;
– general management (counseling, peer review) of
graduation diplomas of bachelors and masters;
– joint research on agreed areas;
Information Technologies in Innovation Business (ITIB), 7-9 October, 2015, Kharkiv, Ukraine
– organization and holding of joint scientific
conferences, symposia, contests, presentations;
– possibility for the university staff to work in the
industry, which helps to improve their skills, on the one hand,
and to improve cooperation, on the other.
The most successful companies are opening computer
classrooms, specialized laboratories, innovation centers [8-9].
This cooperation model is a kind of outsourcing "from
enterprise to the university".
Despite the obvious advantages of a partnership between
IT education and industry, in reality, only one out of ten
students has the opportunity to participate in such programs
since the first years of their education. Thus, the Ukrainian
universities usually have to solve their problems on their own
level, and employers are forced to "headhunt" good students
during their studies at the uuniversity.
The real picture of the interaction of students and IT
companies shows the real problems that exist because of the
lack of a mutually beneficial partnership of IT education and
industry (see Fig. 1)[3].
It is evident that their solution is possible not only through
the modernization of the relevant government programs and
the education system, but also through cooperation in
accordance with the industry.
III. THE ANALYSIS OF INTERACTION OF THE UKRAINIAN
UNIVERSITIES WHICH TRAIN IT EXPERTS
In Ukraine the educational services in the field of
information technology are provided by more than a hundred
universities. Students graduate from the universities under the
vertical component (bachelor - master - graduate) in quite a
wide range of specialties. According to the requirements of the
Bologna process the proper competencies acquisition by
graduates can be achieved both through vertical and horizontal
components of the educational process. Some institutions are
providing the first component through the expansion of
professional opportunities at the stage of undergraduate or
graduate as well as through training in the training center of IT
companies, and through additional remote or distance forms of
education.
Fig. 1. Modern scheme of cooperation between students and
IT companies
 Establishment of the international training centre of startups
The horizontal component should "work" to organize
national and international cooperation of universities that train
IT professionals. However, its components, the modular
principle of the educational process and the credit-rating of
educational outcomes as the institutional framework for
flexibility and mobility of the educational process, were
reflected only due to the international cooperation of
universities and had not acquired proper development at the
national level.
In recent years the horizontal integration of Ukrainian and
European universities appears to have been shown through
programs of "double" diplomas which Ukrainian and European
students are able to receive. Contracts contain fixed terms of
selection of students for training in a parallel mode and timing
of their training. Agreements include the development of
collaboration programs of educational training, joint
organization and diploma practice. Positive results of this
interaction are evident, however the costs are significant
(different periods of training, language training, harmonizing
visa support and others.).
It would seem that the integration of Ukrainian universities
for improvement of the IT education quality requires much less
cost and should be widely distributed because it has a number
of advantages:
– distributed use of material resources of the partner
universities;
– joint implementation of projects, the polarization of
scientific schools;
– participation of the partner universities in students
theoretical education (lectures, seminars) improvement;
– participation of the partner universities in students
practical training (joint projects) improvement and others.
Examples of the horizontal integration of Ukrainian
universities at the bachelor's and master's levels are rare, and
its capabilities are not fully realized.
Thus, the integration of the leading universities for training
IT professionals and accounting requirements of the market
through integration with industry is necessary to improve the
quality of the Ukrainian IT education today.
IV. EXPERIENCE OF INTERACTION OF UNIVERSITIES AMONG
THEMSELVES AND INDUSTRY
Interaction of universities among themselves and industry –
these two requirements form the basis …….
These two requirements form the basis of the TEMPUS
These two requirements form the basis of the TEMPUS
project “Innovation hybrid strategy of IT-outsourcing
Partnership with Enterprises” - IHSITOP: 530319-TEMPUS-
1-2012-1-DE-TEMPUS -JPHES [9].
As you know, outsourcing today is the most popular model
of the IT business in Ukraine. Its basis lies in the fact that a
company that needs to improve any business process (e.g., the
development of SOFTWARE,) refers to the contractor [3 - 5].
Information Technologies in Innovation Business (ITIB), 7-9 October, 2015, Kharkiv, Ukraine
If we talk about outsourcing at the university, there may be two
basic models "enterprise-to-university" and “university-to-
enterprise” [9]. The project implements the second model,
which is that the union of universities can undertake the
implementation of the IT objectives of the company, which
needs IT services and provide students’ practical skills. Thus,
it is possible for "engineering" approach to the students
specific tasks to become reality: all beginning with the
problem and coordination of customer technical specifications
till the implementation and support of the project. The
TEMPUS project "Innovative hybrid strategy IT outsourcing
partnership with companies" has contributed to
implementation of such outsourcing model. Outsourcing
Scientific Training Production Centers (OSTPC) were opened
in four Ukrainian universities (KhNURE, ChNTU, ONPU and
IASA) for realization of its innovative hybrid strategy [6, 11-
12].
The main objective of such centers creation in Ukraine is to
integrate experience of the EU and Ukraine in the promotion
and implementation of progressive and innovative educational
programs in the field of training and retraining experts for the
IT industry and develop partnership between businesses and
universities in Ukraine through the implementation of the real
IT outsourcing projects involving students of universities,
technical schools, colleges, advanced IT students, teachers,
graduate students and IT professionals (hereinafter -
participants) universities on the contract basis. The main
feature of the Center is to concentrate efforts on practical
activities of students, through participation in IT outsourcing
projects. It is important to mention, that this is not an attempt
to replace the classical higher education, but the ability to
complement and deepen it by strengthening the practical
component of training of IT professionals.
Successful operation of outsourcing centers has become
possible thanks to the following objectives:
Operational objectives: development of the methodology of
IT outsourcing partnership with enterprises; development of
the system of qualification rating for teachers and students to
participate in the implementation of outsourcing projects;
development of the system of rating prospects of IT
outsourcing partnership with enterprises; development of the
general principles of mutual relations with the enterprises
involved in the field of IT outsourcing cooperation activities;
development of common principles of personnel management;
Tactical objectives: conducting survey of the students-
candidates; conducting survey of candidates in trainers,
managers; creating card files students and staff on the basis of
the principles developed by the rating of their skills;
organization of educational process with the use of modern
distance learning technologies (through organization of
webinars and other forms of training); selection of students for
a more profound training with an aim of involving them in the
implementation of IT outsourcing projects; preparation for
implementation of the IT outsourcing project; consolidation of
skills, obtained in the learning process through the
implementation of outsourcing projects;
 Nataliya Bilous, Yury Timoshenko, Svetlana Antoshchuk
Strategic (long-term and perspective) objectives: survey
and creation of a database of enterprises using previously
developed Principles of rating their prospects in terms of IT
outsourcing services; creation of the foundation for long-term
partnership with companies through the conclusion of
contracts and mandates of intent; active promotion of the
outsourcing centers activity via the media, conferences,
seminars, workshops; provision of long-time partnership with
enterprises at the expense of implementation of projects,
training courses and other kinds of works in the field of IT
outsourcing; provision of constant replenishment of IT
professionals due to operational monitoring and promotion of
their skills using rating system; expansion of cooperation with
enterprises through the provision of specialist-outsourcers to
accompany the results of implementation of projects and
participation in the new projects of informatization (for IT
companies); provision of continuous learning process by
promoting a comprehensive approach to young professionals
after completing their education.
The centers function about one year, but we can already
talk about achievements. For example, the Center for
outsourcing: all universities have already established student
groups capable of performing the development of complex IT-
projects to date. When carrying out a pilot project for a
network of fitness clubs Malibu to offer innovative technical
solutions that the project team embodied in the real
development, the students of the partner universities were
interning in the company-customer, in the fitness club Malibu,
where they completed the implementation of the development.
Results of the Project were highlighted at international student
conferences in Odessa and in the city of Erfurt (Germany).
Student Organization of outsourcing technical universities
makes it possible to define new mechanisms for cooperation
and initiate new forms of cooperation between a famous
university and business structures. Their practical
implementation in the activities of the universities will be as
follows:
– students gain experience and the necessary skills,
easily find their first job;
– stable development teams are formed in the
departments of the universities, they go to solving the real
problems in the organization of educational process;
– enterprises in the region provide qualified IT
professionals.
Experience of the distributed problem solving is gained
during execution of the project. The experience gained will be
used for further interaction between the University and during
the subsequent design work for the Ukrainian enterprises.
V. CONCLUSION
So, student outsourcing as a form of cooperation with
universities is crucial for joint inter-university research
projects, development of solutions for the industry in Ukraine,
better use of existing universities and enterprise resources.
The experience gained during execution of the project
IHSITOP has shown that the interaction of universities
Information Technologies in Innovation Business (ITIB), 7-9 October, 2015, Kharkiv, Ukraine
enhances the strategic advantage of each of the uuniversities.
Upon completion of the project it is necessary to look for
effective and mutually beneficial methods of complex
interaction of uuniversities and businesses, which is a
promising direction of development of the Ukrainian HE. It is
possibly effective only with extension of OSTPC network in
other Ukrainian universities and support of Ministry of
Education and Science.
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