Significant software developer shortage in Eastern Croatia.
If a hundred, or even 150 developers were to show up at their door, they would hire them all. And that would still not be enough. Their average salaries would be between 8,000 and 8,500 kuna per month. IT companies from Osijek, 32 of them which participate in the Osijek Software City (OSC) platform, desperately need more IT experts, reports Večernji List on March 2, 2016.
"We can hire as many developers as we can find. Most of these companies have permanently opened job positions", says Denis Sušac from Mono company. He adds that IT companies do not have heavy machinery, but just people. When they got together four years ago and moved into the BIOS Business Incubator, they hired everyone they could find.
However, in a city where there are 18,000 university students and almost 100,000 inhabitants, the lack of high-quality employees should not be a problem. Therefore, they asked the University to produce graduates with better skills. "Colleges are not focused on developers, for whom there is the greatest demand because many of them have moved out from Osijek. On the other hand, many companies have moved to our city. Electrical engineers, for example, learn a lot of stuff we just do not need", says Bela Ikotić, OSC secretary. Although they do have the support of the University, due to the rigid legal framework, it is not easy to change curricula. They are therefore trying to design a new program – computer sciences, which would be the first such program in Croatia.
"We are negotiating at a high level and hope that Osijek will become a prominent educational centre in the wider region. We want to create the Osijek model of education. We cannot wait for curricular changes since we will all be retired by then", say the young entrepreneurs. One of their ideas is to go to elementary and secondary schools where they try to find students who might become developers of the future.
"We teach computer programming step-by-step through 20 levels. We are trying to make them interested through robots and games. Theory is boring, but they are interested in making something with their hands", says Ikotić. "High school is where the spark of interest can be ignited, and our ultimate goal is to find those students who are most interested, give them equipment and work with them", concludes Sušac.
However, they did not expect they would have to deal with another problem – the trend of young people leaving the city, and even the country. "We have had many good high school graduates going to university in Zagreb. It's fine that they go, but they should return. Although we are in Osijek, we are working with the whole world", they say.
