New York - 30 October 2020 - Pipedrive, an Estonian-born global software company developing a leading CRM for sales teams, announced today that it is one of the largest contributors to a new cloud-based technology school that will open in fall 2021 in a small town of Jõhvi in Estonia, one of the most digitally advanced nations in the world.
Sergei Anikin, Pipedrive’s CTO, said that whilst Estonia has been at the forefront of the rapid digitalization of the global economy, programming skills need to be constantly developed to stay competitive. Today there is a shortage of thousands of IT specialists in Estonia, and this gap is growing every year. “With a population of only 1.3 million people, Estonia has four unicorns and over a thousand start-ups which all need software developers for growth. The country has excellent IT-education starting with teaching coding in schools, but universities just do not have enough capacity to fill the needs of local tech companies and other sectors. This new cloud-based school will be a great alternative to fill the gap.”
The teaching methodology at Jõhvi Technology School will be based on the internationally developed program 01Edu. It is a two-year intensive study, where each student moves forward at their own pace, solving set tasks that teach both theoretical and practical concepts. Teaching is largely based on group work, and the emphasis is on developing problem-solving skills. Learning is 100% practical and project-based, built in a playful way, and creates a completely personal learning experience for each student. Planned curriculum areas are databases, networks, software applications and interfaces, and user experience design.
A new technology school will be opened in Jõhvi, a town with a population of 10,000 that is located 50km from the Estonian border with Russia. The school will diversify the educational landscape of Eastern Estonia and bring new development opportunities to local people and the region as a whole.
Admittance to the course is open to all people aged 18 and over who have at least a basic education and who successfully pass a one-month test period. No previous programming experience or knowledge required, and studying at the school is free for the student. Registration for the course will begin in the spring of 2021 with teaching due to being in the fall, and the school will admit 200 students a year.
Jõhvi Technology School is an excellent example of cooperation between the state and the private sector. In addition to significant state funding, more than €700,000 will be contributed by local private donors such as TransferWise, Pipedrive, SEB, LHV, Superangel, Bolt, Astrec Data, The Founders' Association, the Good Deed Education Foundation and Startup Estonia.
The founders and leaders of Jõhvi Technology School are Taavet Hinrikus (Transferwise founder), Martin Villig (Bolt founder), investors Marek Kiisa and Rainer Sternfeld, communications expert Mari-Liis Kitter, tech promoters Maarja Pehk and Ede Tamkivi, and a legal expert Merlin Seeman.
Founded in 2010, Pipedrive is the first CRM platform developed from the salesperson's point of view. Today, Pipedrive is used by sales teams at more than 90,000 companies worldwide. Pipedrive is headquartered in New York, has offices across Europe and in the US. The company is backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Partners, Atomico, Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, and Rembrandt Venture Partners. Learn more at www.pipedrive.com.
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Mariliis Beger
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