Information technology (IT) professions have been in high demand in recent years, both in Bulgaria and worldwide, and are rightly called “professions of the future”. Statistics show that students who have graduated from such programmes find a good professional realization as soon as they receive their diploma, and some even in the process of education. This, as well as the fact that the starting salaries in the sector are much higher than those in other fields, makes them extremely attractive and promising for today’s young people.

A striking example of an “incubator” of highly qualified employees in the field of information technology is Varna University of Management, which offers the first of its type in Bulgaria Software Engineering Programme, synchronised with the standards of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) – the world’s largest technical professional technology development organization.

The Software Engineering Programme focuses mainly on programming languages, operating systems and advanced data structures. It combines theoretical and practical training and provides a complete industrial simulation, thus developing highly qualified software developers with all the necessary knowledge and skills for their successful realization. Every year, VUM is synchronizing the curriculum with leading universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, Berkeley and industry leaders such as Google, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle.

Another advantage of the Programme is that It is fully delivered in English and leads to the award of two degrees – one from VUM and a second one from our strategic academic partner Cardiff Metropolitan University in the UK.. English language training helps students to successfully complete the obligatory internships that VUM provides to them, thanks to its extensive and sophisticated network of local and international partners. Thus, they get a real opportunity to create contacts, gain skills and experience in a real environment and lay the foundations for their successful future realization.

It is no coincidence that the majority of the students in the Software Engineering Programme get a job in the field after the first year of their education, and soon after graduation they already occupy strategic or leadership positions. There are many examples, but we cannot miss to mention Nikolay Anastasov, who one year after finishing university is Engineering Manager of Prime Holding and Yordan Ivanov, who holds the position of Development Manager at The Stars Group. Our students Borislava Yordanova and Kaloyan Lachezarov officially received their diplomas this week, but already have a long working experience respectively as a .NET developer at Taxback and a senior developer at iGaming.com.

In the coming weeks, we will introduce in detail some of the most successful graduates of the Software Engineering Programme, who will share why they chose this profession, what their VUM training has contributed to their professional realization, what is the role of theory and practice in the training of software engineers and many other curious details.