Supporting future IT talents
For the second year, Omega 365 Lithuania has participated in a collaborative initiative with the Klaipėda City Municipality, offering local high school students an opportunity to work in IT.
Published: 17. September 2024This summer, four talented students joined the Omega 365 Lithuania team from July to August, gaining hands-on experience in software system development, specifically in Automated Software Testing (AST) for quality assurance.
Practical IT experience
The summer apprenticeship at Omega 365 Lithuania gave students the opportunity to work on real IT tasks. Collaborating as a team, the students developed AST solutions under the guidance of experienced mentors, gaining practical insights into real-world IT work.
Livija Juškaitė, one of the participating students, shared her thoughts on the experience:
“I learned the importance of teamwork. When tasks were challenging, my colleague Aleksandra and I would work together, and if we needed more help, our mentor Aidas was always ready with advice or support. This teamwork made solving problems much easier and more enjoyable.”
Although Livija's journey into programming began early, it was through this program that she solidified her passion for backend development.
“I've always been interested in programming. In fifth grade, I joined a programming club but quickly realized I wasn't interested in creating websites. Instead, I discovered my passion for backend programming, where I can work with logic and solve problems. This job confirmed that I enjoy the problem-solving side of technology, and while testing was a good start, I'm eager to focus more on software development in the future,” Livija explained.
Aleksandra Čiukina, who had a similar experience, started with limited hard skills and managed to grow significantly during her time at Omega 365 Lithuania.
“This job has influenced my personal growth, particularly in team dynamics. I'm naturally shy, but working in a team and having supportive colleagues has boosted my confidence in communicating with others.”
Mentorship and leadership development
During the internship, the students were supported by mentors who provided daily guidance and assistance, ensuring they could make the most of their experience. Aidas Gaučas, an IT student at Klaipėda University and a team member of Omega 365 Lithuania, served as the team lead.
“Participating in the summer program with the students developing automated software tests for quality assurance at Omega 365 Lithuania has been one of the most unique experiences of my IT engineering studies. It helped me enhance my teamwork and management skills in a professional development environment and provided an enjoyable learning opportunity within an amazing software engineering team,” says Aidas, reflecting on his role.
Ilja Slobodianik is another returning student, spending his second summer at Omega 365 Lithuania.
“I have managed to deepen my hard skills, mainly related to automated software testing, as well as strengthen my soft skills, such as communicating with different people when I needed assistance. I also gained a better understanding of how an IT company functions, and, last but certainly not least, this experience boosted my English proficiency,” he shares.
Success in collaboration
Omega 365 Lithuania had the unique opportunity to engage with and evaluate potential future team members, gaining insight into their abilities, work ethic, and potential for future growth within the organization.
Giovanni Di Noto, the Pims Project Controls Manager at Omega 365 Lithuania and the company coordinator for the program, was delighted to collaborate with Klaipėda City Municipality’s High School Program to engage young talents over the summer of 2024.
“We recruited four talented students eager to learn more about the IT industry and gain hands-on professional experience, acquiring new skills such as software testing automation, product internationalization, agile project management, and Cost, Quality & Risk management disciplines. We set challenging goals for our younger colleagues, fully immersing them from day one into the professional reality of our global Tech Hub and providing a strong operational and leadership framework, including daily coaching and mentorship, along with weekly status and feedback sessions,” he says.
“The outcomes and achievements have been outstanding—well beyond expectations! This initiative has created a 'win-win-win' situation for our organization, the local IT industry, the community, and, most importantly, for all four participating young talents whose professional horizons have been greatly expanded. We are extremely proud to have fulfilled one of our key Corporate Social Responsibilities through this smart High School summer program, and we look forward to more initiatives like this.”