Empowering Career Growth in Challenging Times with ITSkills4U 

EPAM and ITSkills4U are empowering career growth of Ukrainians by providing training to 16,000 individuals living in a war zone and those displaced by the war and seeking refuge.

When Ukraine was invaded in February of 2022, daily life in the country underwent an immediate and profound shift. Many residents were forced from their homes, while those that remained in place faced confusing and unpredictable conditions on the ground. Everything was suddenly an unanswered question: Where do you live? How do you move around? How do you make money?

“After the assault our lives changed completely,” says Oleksii Holik, a Ukrainian Junior Systems Engineer. “It changed how we live, and it changed everyone’s goals.”

Forging a new career in a war zone

Holik knows first-hand about changing goals. Initially trained as a biologist, he spent most of his career in market research. But, by January of 2022, he had decided he wanted to move into a technical role. He began his studies just weeks before the bombs started falling. Many in his position might have shelved the idea of training new skills during this kind of crisis, but Holik wasn’t going to let anything slow him down. “I was driven by the desire for change and by responsibility for my family,” he says. Today, 18 months later, with the help of ITSkills4U, an AWS training program specifically targeted to Ukrainians, Holik has earned three AWS Certifications, and landed a job at EPAM Systems Inc. (EPAM), an AWS Partner and a leading software engineering and product development firm with offices in more than 50 countries around the world.

“ITSkills4U had a significant impact on my career path,” says Holik. “Achieving AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification was not easy but it trained me thoroughly and helped me stand out from other candidates during the interview process. This also gave me confidence in my day-to-day work, as my project at EPAM is closely related to the AWS Cloud.”

Read the full article here.

Learn more about our partnership with AWS: https://www.epam.com/about/who-we-are/partners/aws

Discover how EPAM supports Ukraine: https://www.epam.com/support-ukraine