Informal School of IT students receive thorough training from an exceptional team of mentors – something confirmed over time by the results of the School's graduates. The curriculum takes into account the realities of an industry in constant change, being continuously adapted to technological shifts and the field's development.
Well, even under these conditions, we felt the bar needed to be raised even higher!
What if we gave students the chance to test their knowledge and work in a multidisciplinary team right during the learning program, on a project similar to those carried out at an IT company? So that by graduation, every student would already have gone through an experience as close to reality as possible!
And why not, since a project is already being worked on, let it be developed further and perhaps even monetized?
That's how Challenge Accepted was born, an interdisciplinary challenge, a competition between 9 teams made up of Informal School of IT students, with the process of building the application they set out to create together following every stage of a real-world process, under the coordination of two Project Managers. Each team was also joined by a technical consultant – one of the School's mentors.
What did Challenge Accepted mean?
We could sum it up like this:
Two and a half months – the project's duration, 3,600 hours worked in total, 400 hours worked by each team, no fewer than 130 students, 16 project managers and 10 mentors. And behind the numbers? There's… initiative, work, motivation, dedication, responsibility, effort, problems, solutions.
We were delighted to see the creativity and perseverance behind the projects presented at an event held at Cluj Business Center – the teams pulled together to reach their final goal, presenting several functional applications to a jury made up of mentors and representatives of partner companies. The web applications covered diverse fields, from healthcare, finance and real estate, to education, sports, beauty, networking and more. The participants presented the process they went through, the tasks they had to complete, the obstacles they faced, and the ways they communicated with the other members of their team.
Our students were thrilled with this experience, reaching goals that, as they themselves admit, they wouldn't have believed a few months earlier they could achieve – let's not forget that just a few months before, some of them were coming into contact with the IT field for the very first time! Two of their projects were noted by the jury as having high market potential, with interest in investing in their further development! What stronger validation of their efforts could they have received?
What comes next after the first Challenge Accepted edition?
Given the positive response to this challenge, we've decided to keep this initiative going, and even make it an integral part of the learning process! From now on, such interdisciplinary team projects will be part of Informal School of IT's standard curriculum! So, "Do or Do not. There is no try."
Do you also want to go through such a hands-on experience?
You choose where to start, and we'll build the rest together.
IT INTRODUCTION, TRAINING AND SPECIALIZATION
