Press Releases

Budapest, February 11, 2016 16:00

The career orientation program of the Magyar Telekom Group titled ” Become an IT Expert!” was launched. The objective of the program: break down stereotypes, make the IT career more attractive. Currently the Hungarian labor market lacks 10,000 IT experts.

Today Magyar Telekom and T-Systems Hungary introduced the Become an IT Expert program in the Budapest Móricz Zsigmond High School where the CEO of Telekom held an extraordinary class exercise for students.

Shortage of IT experts is a global problem in the whole industry, currently the Hungarian labor market lacks more than 10,000 IT experts and this has a major impact on the performance of national economy. Moreover, young people choosing careers do not consider this profession attractive enough, either. The Become an IT Expert program of Magyar Telekom and T-Systems Hungary targets changing this, offering a framework to the thousands of IT experts working at the company to introduce the perspectives of an IT career to young people.

Although the IT career also comes with decent remuneration, still it is not lucrative enough to young people, who presumably are not aware of the professional career options. The most important objective of the Become an IT Expert program is to break down stereotypes and obstacles, making this way both parents and children choosing their careers more open for one of the most important professions of our age. The pilot phase of the program was launched in October last year, by now the volunteers of Telekom trained more than 1,800 students and further requests are continuously received from all across the country. The material presenting the topic to elementary school children in a playful manner also becomes available soon.

The website ( www.legyelteisinformatikus.hu) is also an organic part of the Become an IT Expert program, offering useful tips about the profession, competitions and traineeship possibilities.

„By creating the Digital Hungary vision, Hungary will be among the first countries in Europe to build the superbly fast network, however taking broadband and the tools everywhere in the country is not sufficient, companies also bear responsibility in developing competencies. Magyar Telekom takes its digital responsibility seriously, and we trust that through the program we contribute to the substantial increase of applicants for university IT engineering faculties soon, and that ever more fresh graduates will find employment in Hungary” – said Christopher Mattheisen, CEO of Telekom.

IT is the creative language, to achieve anything

At the press conference before the special class exercise, Gameday blogger Szirmai Gergely and Kiss Imre introduced their film titled „One day of mine without IT”, attempting to spend their day without using any IT tool – except the camera.

„ Although is our experience one can survive a day without IT, still it feels like being cavemen. We wasted a lot of time on getting everyday things done” – said Kiss Imre. Not using the merits of IT practically makes our days and life impossible – said Szirmai Gergő. The longer version of the video will be soon debuted on the Gameday YouTube channel.

In his contribution Rab Árpád, researcher of the Óbuda University Digital Culture and Human Technology Knowledge Center said: „Changes of the IT society and digital culture is inevitable, it is an in-depth and irreversible process, a basic need for people. The IT society requires new skills, a new mindset, and interconnecting different areas.” The researcher outlined, that IT is gaining ground in ever more areas of our life, all disciplines of science will be backed by IT in the future, therefore the need for IT experts increases.
„IT is not a stand alone, inhumane science any more, rather an easy to learn, creative language, that helps achieving almost anything. No wonder, that it is a well paying industry, offering exciting opportunities” – added Rab Árpád.

The website of the program is available all around Hungary, for applications for the extraordinary class exercise.
According to plans, other companies from the IT industry can also participate – coordinated by the Association of IT Enterprises (IVSZ). The long term objective is to initiate a real social dialogue about the IT profession, with the sector actively participating.