Higher quality and more effective higher education in Bulgaria – such a mission may be possible if the business took active part in it. This is Balkan Services’ maxim. For more than 8 years the company has participated in the education process of a number of leading universities in Bulgaria, enriched students’ practical knowledge and supported both their future success, and the business’ need for qualified personnel.
For this purpose Balkan Services works in partnership with some of the most renowned universities in Bulgaria, including Sofia University, Technical University, American University, University of National and World Economy (UNWE), and the University of Forestry, where it presents students with real practice cases, and develops their practical skills. Since the Autumn of 2015, the company has also been the partner of the new Master's Degree program of “Business Analysis and ERP”, jointly implemented with ERP Academy and the University of Finance, Business and Entrepreneurship (VUZF). In early 2016, consultants from the company were lecturers at Software University (SoftUni), too, in order to show students BI solutions and career opportunities in this field.
“I am happy that a Bulgarian IT company is getting actively involved in the educational process of future specialists. I believe that students have to get the chance to learn from the best specialists, and, when it comes to Business Intelligence, Balkan Services is what I first associate professionalism with, said Natalia Futekova, founder of ERP Academy and lecturer at UNWE.
“Our goal is to share our most valuable trait – our knowledge, and to show students successful practices and opportunities, in order to motivate them to be more ambitious and proactive in terms of their professional development”, said Boyana Likomanova, head of Business Intelligence Unit at Balkan Services. She further added that one of the company's causes is the education of future IT specialists, but that the idea is actually derived from the need to educate their own personnel, and that Balkan Services already has some young people who have joined it directly from the university.
The stronger interest to BI software is in response to the needs of the dynamically developing market. According to Balkan Services specialists, Bulgaria needs a better understanding about technologies both on the part of developers, and of business users. It is important to know that this field is a combination of knowledge and skills both in business, technological, and economic terms.
In order to fully meet business’ requirements, several times a year the company organized its own specialized courses, too, dedicated both to senior managers, and to analysts and users of the BI software. The courses can be suited to non-specialists or to advanced users, they can be individual, for groups or for whole teams.
