8 Years of Partnership Between EPAM Bulgaria and Burgas Municipality: Growing Tomorrow's Tech Leaders

8 Years of Partnership Between EPAM Bulgaria and Burgas Municipality: Growing Tomorrow's Tech Leaders

For eight years, EPAM Bulgaria has partnered with Burgas Municipality with a clear goal: preparing the city's young talent for a future in which technology will play an ever more central role. The partnership spans multiple areas, from coding classes for young children and school equipment to mentorship for student teams and participation in discussions about the future of education.

Burgas is also one of EPAM Bulgaria's key hubs. Today, our team there has grown to more than 50 dedicated colleagues. "Our partnership with Burgas Municipality has grown over the years into a sustainable collaboration that has made a real contribution to the development of the city's IT ecosystem,” shares Vladimir Natchev, Country Head, EPAM Bulgaria. “For eight years now, we have worked together to give children the chance to engage with technology, develop their skills and see that a career in this field is a real possibility. Consistency is the most important part. When an initiative continues for years, we start to see its true impact on people and on the community."

From a remote team workspace to community impact: EPAM E-KIDS® and Coding Kids

EPAM's partnership with Burgas Municipality began more than eight years ago. What started as summer offices (seasonal remote workspaces) and annual technology conferences in the seaside city has since evolved into a permanent hub, where a dedicated team of 50 EPAMers now works year-round. 

In 2021, EPAM and Burgas Municipality launched the Coding Kids program. Through this initiative, students from the Burgas High School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences step up as mentors, guiding children ages six to 14 through tech fundamentals. 

The impact has been significant. By the end of 2025, more than 2,050 children had completed the course, with another 420 joining in 2026. Each year, roughly 24 high school students step up to mentor the next generation. EPAM supports these young leaders by providing learning materials and training, ensuring they have the guidance needed to succeed.

"Coding Kids is one of the projects where we most clearly see how an opportunity grows into a mission with real impact,” states Stanislava Gorostanova, People Lead, EPAM Bulgaria. “The children who first come to learn something about programming gradually start creating their own projects and experimenting. And the high school students who teach them build confidence and skills that are hard to learn in a classroom alone. It's exactly this connection between the two groups that makes the program so valuable to us."

Investing in infrastructure

Our support for Burgas schools goes beyond knowledge and mentorship. Over the years, EPAM has periodically provided equipment for classrooms and labs at the local IT high school, so that students have an environment where they can develop their projects and gain practical skills.

For us, investing in the right infrastructure is a natural extension of building technology skills. Access to modern tools and well-equipped spaces gives students the opportunity to experiment, create and work on projects while they are still in school.

Beyond the classroom: conferences, hackathons and mentorship

Our EPAMers regularly participate in roundtable discussions with local schools, universities and businesses on topics related to the future of education. We also organize joint IT conferences with the municipality, and our colleagues serve as mentors and trainers at hackathons and academies.

This year, EPAM managers and specialists mentored student teams at the fourth edition of the city's Summer Tech Academy. Over the course of the three-month program, students from several Burgas schools go through the entire process of building a software project, from requirements analysis and planning through to development and presenting the finished solution.

"Mentorship is most valuable when students stop waiting for guidance and start looking for solutions on their own,” says Aneliya Duhalova, Quality Engineering Manager, EPAM Bulgaria. “That's when you see their confidence grow, not because someone told them what to do, but because they found the way there themselves. To me, that's the whole point of programs like this: giving young people not the ready-made answers, but the confidence that they can find them on their own."

For several years, EPAM has also supported Teen Boom Fest, the largest summer event for young people in Burgas, which brings together thousands of teenagers from the city and the region.

For us, it's another opportunity to introduce young people to technology in a casual, fun setting and to show them that it can be more than a profession. It can be a space for creativity, experimentation and new ideas. Sometimes the first step toward technology doesn't start in a programming class. It can start with a conversation, an event or simply curiosity about trying something new.

A partnership that keeps growing

Eight years later, EPAM Bulgaria’s commitment to Burgas continues to connect business, education and the local community. 

For us, developing tech talent isn't a one-off initiative but a long-term process. Sometimes it starts with that one first Scratch lesson. Other times, with an equipped classroom, a meeting with a tech specialist, or mentorship on a student project.

It's these consistent opportunities that, over time, give young people the knowledge, skills and confidence to find their own path in technology. And when business, education and the local community move in the same direction, the result is bigger than any single initiative: an environment where the next generation of tech talent can grow.

If you’re looking for a team that values community investment as much as engineering excellence, explore our open roles worldwide.