The world is actively going digital, and Kyrgyzstan is not lagging. More and more business processes have gone online, and the market is bursting with offers for IT professionals. Few people haven't thought at least once today: ‘How about going into IT.’ However, retraining and learning everything from scratch is not a cheap pleasure. But thanks to the social project ‘Girls in IT’, 30 girls from the Kyrgyz regions have been allowed to learn a new, in-demand profession and gain self-presentation skills for future employment.

The ‘Girls in IT’ social project is aimed at women's entrepreneurship development in Kyrgyzstan. This year, it was launched in pilot mode, but it would not have been possible without Wildberries and the donors, namely the Public Foundation ‘Ene-balaga Tirek’, the state enterprise ‘Kyrgyz Pochtasy’ and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic.

Together with government partners, 30 girls from seven provinces of Kyrgyzstan were selected from the country's vocational high schools to participate in the pilot project. The training was conducted in the summer of 2024 under the coordination of Wildberries Art Director Dmitry Matveev and with the participation of the company's design and HR experts.

"Thanks to my teacher I learnt about this project. She told me about the participation terms and what would be taught there. Since I have been interested in design for a long time, I was keen to participate. Everything they taught us was interesting, and I liked that attention was paid to everyone. As for me, we needed to learn how to make our portfolios and CVs,' Alexandra, one of the project participants, shared.

The teachers' task was not to teach design and self-presentation basic knowledge only, but also to help the participants develop their style. Therefore, they had to start from the basics, but at the end of the two-month course, each was already ready to cooperate with private entrepreneurs and large companies.

"By training young people, we form a talent pool for ourselves, which allows us to attract people we already know. Many of those trained in our project, we consider as the Wildberries' future employees. Of course, some still need time to grow to full employment, but we will continue to monitor their development and progress in training. I hope that in a year we will be able to share their achievements,' Kseniya Shkolnikova, Director of Government Relations in the Kyrgyz Republic at Wildberries, said in a conversation with the Akchabar editorial office.

The project finalists passed their graduation papers and were awarded certificates and gifts. All 30 participants received laptops and valuable prizes which will help them to realise their professional skills and further training. In addition, all the course graduates are recommended to Wildberries partners in Kyrgyzstan as beginners capable of creating product cards, and social network pages designing and solving design tasks.

Since the project is still a pilot, it may be scaled up in the future, and some even hope that this kind of class will become optional in educational institutions.

"We will be happy to further promote such projects as we realise that only a symbiosis between an employer and an educational institution will produce a quality employee.
Only an employer who works in practice can advise on how to apply the practical skills learnt properly. Therefore, it is not excluded that in the future the project will have an even larger scale,' the Deputy Minister of Education of the Kyrgyz Republic, Rasul Abazbek uulu, noted.

In conclusion, Wildberries Head Tatiana Kim in her video message said that the company is happy to realise not only business initiatives but also social projects. She emphasised that the Wildberries platform is a platform for growth and professional development of local entrepreneurs and young specialists in such areas as IT, design and e-commerce. The head also expressed gratitude to the state authorities and partners for assistance in the socially significant project implementation, adding that the company intends to continue supporting young professionals in Kyrgyzstan and other countries of its presence.