An Interview with Amalya Yeghoyan of the Gyumri IT Center

The Gyumri IT Center (GITC) was founded about nine years ago to provide education in information technologies in the Gyumri region. Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city, was heavily damaged by the 1988 earthquake. An objective of the GITC is to provide a pool of IT expertise in the area to attract industry and improve Gyumri’s economy. The GITC was established and financed by the Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR), the Enterprise Incubator Foundation, and Shirak Technologies Ltd., together with generous donations by diaspora and local Armenians. The GITC’s facilities are currently located in Gyumri’s Ankakhutyan square, but will move to Gyumri Technology Park in September or October.

In our program we have had a lot of success: 97 percent of our graduates have found work in Armenia.
In our program we have had a lot of success: 97 percent of our graduates have found work in Armenia.

 

Joseph Dagdigian—Please introduce yourself and the GITC

Amalya Yeghoyan—My name is Amalya, I work at and am the director of the GITC. We are funded by the Fund for Armenian Relief and American benefactors. GITC…has operated since 2005, and we have two basic programs: academic and business. Every year the number of students as well as the number of graduates increase. Our education consists of two different sections: web technology and mobile technology. Topics in web technology include static and dynamic web development, java programming and all the other technologies that will make students effective web developers. In the mobile curriculum the focus is on IOS and Android computer system technology. In our program we have had a lot of success: 97 percent of our graduates have found work in Armenia.

 

J.D.—In Gyumri?

A.Y.—Unfortunately not all in Gyumri, many in Yerevan. In Gyumri there are not so many companies involved in this kind of work. But now, with the establishment of the Gyumri Technology Park, many technology companies are considering opening branches in Gyumri. Our biggest partner, UNICEF Armenia, is focused on e-learning, online teaching, which we have been involved with for one year and which has been growing. We are implementing e-learning systems and have U.S.-based clients. An example is the Toufayan Bakery in New Jersey. We are working with different mobile and web clients in Germany. A German reporter came here and interviewed me. He returned to Germany, issued his report, and a week later we established relations with a large German company and have started to work on a project for them. They have become one of our best clients.

Our biggest issue is that we would like to be less dependent on large donors, but rather fund our operations from income derived from work projects. We also need to continue to find new clients and new orders. The rest is based on skill: We need to educate our students. In a couple of days we are graduating our 7th graduating class; we have 25 graduates.

We now have a variety of educational methods: online teaching, individual trainings, on-the-job trainings, evening courses for the people who already have a job but would like to study programming simultaneously, and if the company needs a specialist we will train them. And we have our traditional two-year program.

 

J.D.—How many graduates have you had up until now, and how many teachers and other staff members do you have?

A.Y.—We have had 120 graduates, and nearly 350 beneficiary students, as not all students complete the program and graduate. But they still can take advantage of their education. We have 120 graduates, 97 percent of whom are working in various areas in Armenia. We have 55 students, 25 of whom will graduate in a few days, and we have 30 new students who will attend our summer session courses. At the end of August, we will make student selections for the coming year starting in September. Then we will see how many students we have.

You asked about teachers. We had them from Yerevan and now we have some from Gyumri, some of whom are our own graduates. Every semester they can be different depending on their evaluations and their teaching quality. We are very flexible.

 

J.D.—What qualifications do prospective students need?

A.Y.—They must be high school graduates or have other higher education. They have to attend our summer session. At the end of August, they need to pass an exam in logic and mathematics. We then make our selection for students.


J.D.—
What is the tuition for students?

A.Y.—Most of the expenses come from the Fund for Armenian Relief. Tuition is 200,000 dram, which is about $500 per year.

 

J.D.—Thank you.

 

For more information about the Gyumri IT Center, visit gitc.am.

 

Hovsep Daghdigian

Hovsep Daghdigian

Joseph “Hovsep” Daghdigian is originally from Lowell, MA. His grandparents were from Kharpet in Western Armenia. He is active in the Merrimack Valley community and a former chairman of the AYF CE. Dagdigian is a retired electrical and software engineer with a MS in computer engineering. Dagdigian spends three to five months per year in Armenia and Artsakh exploring sites with his friend Vova Tshagharyan. His adventures are described in his “Unseen Armenia” series of articles. He, with Anahid Yeremian, co-founded the Support Committee for Armenia’s Cosmic Ray Division (SCACRD) in 2000 to support the scientists and students at the Cosmic Ray Division of the Yerevan Physics Institute (now the A. Alikhanyan National Laboratory). He lives in Harvard, MA with his wife Lisa.
Hovsep Daghdigian

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