No future for IT education in Belarus?
Is IT education no longer attractive in Belarus? / unsplash.com
Parents in Belarus are enrolling their schoolchildren in IT courses so that children could learn programming before entering specialized universities. A career in "IT" attracts young people. However, now Belarusian IT specialists are leaving Belarus en masse together with the IT companies. The big relocation of programmers began in the repressive year of 2020 and accelerated after Belarus supported Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Does it make sense for a high school student to prepare for an IT career in Belarus if IT specialists are leaving?
"In fact, the situation is more favorable for these children now," Siarhey Alsheuski, head of the "People's Textbook" project, tells Euroradio. "If they start to prepare from childhood, then after the full training, they will compete in the international market".
And this is another level of salaries, requirements and opportunities. All these courses are not meaningless. Parents have to understand that while in the past they prepared their children for the Belarusian IT market, now they have to focus on the international market. And this means steep competition and great opportunities.
If kids go to a specialized university in Belarus, it will be harder for them to compete in the international market. Unfortunately, the level of IT education is lame in some places, let's put it that way. But in general, there's nothing wrong here. With knowledge and skills, you can easily compete. It is crucial to have a conversation with children about the need to pay proper attention to the English language. Without it, it will be more difficult to find a job.
"Clearly, it will be more difficult for a young person, a junior in the IT industry, to get a job in IT," Leu Lvouski, economist and senior researcher at BEROC, shares his opinion with Euroradio. "If in the past, the office of a large company was located in Minsk, and people started working in the third or fourth year, now it will be more difficult. It may be that a young employee of the company won't be transferred to Europe right away".
On the other hand, you have to understand that a factory job, as an alternative career option for young workers, will also deteriorate. This is not a case where it is difficult for IT companies to stay in Belarus and they have to leave, while everyone else stays and continues working as if nothing had happened. Our labor market is very likely to experience serious shocks. There won't be any unnecessary jobs at factories either.
Thus, we can only sympathize with the young people who are now starting their careers [in the IT field - Euroradio]. This is a serious shock, and it is likely to affect their future career.
Experts agree that a programmer will stay afloat under any circumstances.
"It is probably the most convertible profession, which is the easiest to move to another country with," explains Leu Lvouski. "If you are a top highly paid lawyer in Belarus, it will be much more difficult for you to become one in Lithuania for example. If you are a specialist in the field of machine learning, it will be much easier for you to move and protect your future against events in Belarus. Yes, it will be more difficult to become an IT specialist. But the upside of choosing such a profession increases in a sense. These people will have to rely less on their careers in Belarus.
"The black spot of a Belarusian"
Let's say the university graduate got the necessary knowledge. But after Aliaksandr Lukashenka made Belarus look like an ally of the aggressor country, the attitude towards Belarusians - at least in the West - has changed. Will a foreign employer now give the cold shoulder to a specialist from Belarus?
"If you are a professional, it does not matter where you are from. It's important that you share the values and goals of the company where you work. IT people make up a more highly educated layer of the workforce, and I think that there will be no questions to such guys," believes Siarhey Alsheuski.
"Belarusian citizenship has not yet become a black spot. But living and working in Belarus is becoming a black spot in many places," says Lvouski. "Thus, there is more mass relocation of IT companies now than there was in 2020. There are several reasons for this. Some clients refuse to work with IT companies located in Belarus. They do not want to send money to Belarus".
The second reason is that our companies use foreign services. They use cloud storage, computing power, purchase hardware, and so on. Some companies can no longer buy these services if the company is located in Belarus.
The third reason is various logistical problems, including the fact that it has become more difficult to transfer money. All of a sudden, we find ourselves in a world where IT people have wage gaps.
The fourth reason is employee security. You have to understand that we now face increased military censorship, and many IT companies openly support Ukraine. Since Belarus is on the other side of the barricades, this means that the employees of such a company are at greater risk when they live in Belarus.
The fifth reason is problems with raising funds. When investors find out that you have facilities in Belarus, they are less willing to invest in your project.
The end of "IT-country"?
So programmers are leaving and investors are reluctant to invest. Is the "IT-country" dying in Belarus?
"I think that the Belarusian IT-industry is not going to die, but will no longer be in Belarus," said Leu Lvouski. "The prospects of HTP, of course, are rapidly deteriorating. We do not know yet to what extent they will get worse. When companies relocate, they do not inform anyone about the exact figures. We will see this in the next six months or a year, if government statistics are not classified".
As western companies will leave, some IT companies will focus on activities within Belarus or on the Russian market. But this will not be massive because these markets will become less solvent. And it is hardly worth saying that most of our IT-companies, which are primarily focused on Western countries, will suddenly turn to the Belarusian or Russian market.
