The IT industry is evidently expanding and developing rapidly.

The need for labor is increasing, but so are the demands that employers place on potential employees.

In addition to the basic skills necessary to work in the IT sector, fine communication skills and coping skills in the business environment are increasingly sought after. On the other hand, people do not possess the necessary knowledge.

But the problem is not in them.

The problem is that, until now, young people could not acquire the necessary skills in one place.

In an even more difficult position are young people, who are not part of the conventional education or training system, and who are unemployed, the so-called NEET youth.

Research shows that there are about 20% young people in the region who are NEET and who move in a rather closed sphere, where information and opportunities are difficult to reach.

The prevailing opinion in society indirectly communicates that it is enough to just enroll in one of the IT majors at the university and that they will be around you when you graduate, if not before.

But is it really so?

Experience says it is not.

The majority of young people who are not in formal education, and those who are, do not know where to turn after college. All they hear when they get out of college is silence and the occasional holler.

It has been shown that many of them give up their studies or their ideas precisely because they do not see how to get a job in the digital era.

We spoke with Ana, a former student of the technical faculty:

It's terrible when you kill yourself studying for a difficult entrance exam, then you somehow fail, and only then does the studying begin. You try and try and hope that a magical portal to the world of developers will open, that you will meet someone who will introduce you to the practical part. But nothing happens, you study, you have exams and that's it.

I'm not saying, there are exceptions, but for the most part you get out just like any other faculty. Finish, so what? Where? How?

Although I had a lot of practical tasks at university, I did not, for example, acquired no skills related to business, relations with employers and clients. And whether you get and later keep a certain job depends a lot on that. It's not the same when the professor gives you an assignment and draws everything for you and when you have to organize your work yourself, for real projects. Already in my final year, I started to worry about how I would do after because I realized that it wasn't really a joke-fun.

I talked to everyone I could about my anxiety until my sister's friend told me they existed courses for people who want to get a job in the IT sector and have little or no practical background at all.

He has friends who found out about the training through Facebook, signed up and, until then, without much practical knowledge, received a concrete opportunity for further training.

That's why I decided to try it. And I did not repent. Next to concrete knowledge, at the training I acquired and soft skills, which are very important for my work today. Towards the end of the six-month course, we had a simulation of a conversation with the entrepreneurs who trained us, and that's how I got an offer for an internship, and later for a job - in the same company.

What was most interesting to me was that we worked with "real people". Lecturers and mentors from real companies come and teach you concrete things. Literally, that portal opens and you enter that world. Those courses are an interesting community of people with ideas, knowledge and skills, like your iDEAlab, who I know is also participating in the organization of the course this year.

In addition to programming for web applications, I hear that there is currently a program for digital marketing. It is clear to everyone that it is a very promising career today, and there is not even a formal education program for it, at least as far as I know. No faculty has a major in digital marketing, so this is an extra chance for everyone who is interested in it.

I will recommend this education to anyone who wants to work in the IT industry, in any position, because here, I am your example.

According to the education coordinator, one of the biggest obstacles that young people face when looking for a job Center for youth work, Isidora Paklar, the fact that they have to look for the knowledge, skills and support they need in different places in the system.

That process can be extremely long and tiring for a young person who wants to start a career path in the IT industry. The path to work is definitely not easy, even though it can be presented that way.

It is true that nowadays digital revolutions are happening one after the other, and most likely the series will continue in the future. It only means that there will be work in this sector and that new positions will be opened. Experience tells us that without the right information, despite knowledge, young people find it difficult to find employment.

We hope that in the future, useful information and necessary education will find their way to ambitious young people more easily and quickly - which, among other things, is one of the main goals of the iDEAlab association.