Good IT news coming from Slavonia.
Osijek could soon become the “capital” of the Croatian software industry. At the end of last year, in Osijek-Baranja County there were 109 software companies with 420 employees. Since 2011, the number of software companies in the area has increased by 76 percent, while the number of employees has increased by 70 percent, reports Index.hr on September 5, 2016.
An important part in this progress is played by Osijek Software City association which was founded in 2013 by several software companies which wanted to join forces and give impetus to the development of software industry in Osijek, raise the competitiveness of developers, and encourage entrepreneurship in the ICT sector.
Bela Ikotić, secretary of Osijek Software City, said that, in addition to local companies, research centres in Osijek are being opened by companies from Zagreb as well. “Osijek has proven to be an excellent location for software development, and a considerable number of companies from Zagreb have decided to open their research centres right here. Together with local companies, we have developed into a serious IT centre. Since one of our goals is to encourage entrepreneurship in the ICT sector, many of our efforts have been going in that direction”, said Ikotić.
Osijek Software City gathers about 30 companies which have headquarters or branch offices in Osijek. “We have launched the initiative in early 2012, wanting to demonstrate that, despite the current economic situation, the will to work and expert knowledge always have a future. Currently, the regional IT industry suffers from a chronic lack of trained professionals and we want to change that by stressing which skills are necessary for finding jobs in companies in this industry”, said Ikotić.
Osijek City Software has launched a series of activities to encourage the education of people to work in the IT sector. One of the problems is a mismatch between formal educational programmes in schools and the actual needs of the labour market, which is why they have established educational programme for all those who would like to work in the IT sector.
“We try to encourage people of all ages and professions to further educate themselves for those business sectors in which they would like to work”, said Ikotić. They have organized CodeCamp which includes lectures, workshops and projects in the field of design and development of software products and systems administration. There is also the Software Startup Academy, organized by Microsoft Croatia, which provides free education for university students, high school pupils, and others who would like to learn something new about software development and how to develop their own business ideas.
Osijek Software City also organizes two international conferences – Maker Faire in May and KulenDayz in September.
