The National IT retraining program was first piloted in 2017 and, so far, UNDP and the Office for IT and eGovernment, with support from the Office of the Prime Minister, have coordinated programs that led to the retraining of around 2000 individuals. 

As the fastest growing sector in the economy, the IT sector produces significant demand for new labor and skills. Hence, the National IT retraining program was set up to respond to these new needs by educating and providing relevant internships to new programmers in JavaScript, Java, Python, .NET and other languages and technologies, thus boosting the IT labor market and increasing employment. Program providers include a wide array of academic institutions, private companies, private schools, NGOs, and regional ICT clusters.

In order to increase the inclusivity of the programs, a pilot retraining program for 15 persons with disabilities was created in collaboration with the Youth with disabilities Forum. This program will feature six months of training, primarily in JavaScript, soft skill workshops, and at least 120h internships in the private sector. While this pilot will include only 15 individuals, it is only the beginning of improving the inclusivity of the National IT retraining program.

The call for applications is open until October 18th. For more information (in Serbian) about this call click here.