Empowering career growth in challenging times with ITSkills4U

EPAM and ITSkills4U are empowering career growth of Ukrainians by providing training to 16,000 individuals living in a war zone and those displaced by the war and seeking refuge.

When Ukraine was invaded in February of 2022, daily life in the country underwent an immediate and profound shift. Many residents were forced from their homes, while those that remained in place faced confusing and unpredictable conditions on the ground. Everything was suddenly an unanswered question: Where do you live? How do you move around? How do you make money?

“After the assault our lives changed completely,” says Oleksii Holik, a Ukrainian Junior Systems Engineer. “It changed how we live, and it changed everyone’s goals.”

Forging a new career in a war zone

Holik knows first-hand about changing goals. Initially trained as a biologist, he spent most of his career in market research. But, by January of 2022, he had decided he wanted to move into a technical role. He began his studies just weeks before the bombs started falling. Many in his position might have shelved the idea of training new skills during this kind of crisis, but Holik wasn’t going to let anything slow him down. “I was driven by the desire for change and by responsibility for my family,” he says. Today, 18 months later, with the help of ITSkills4U, an AWS training program specifically targeted to Ukrainians, Holik has earned three AWS Certifications, and landed a job at EPAM Systems Inc. (EPAM), an AWS Partner and a leading software engineering and product development firm with offices in more than 50 countries around the world.

“ITSkills4U had a significant impact on my career path,” says Holik. “Achieving AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification was not easy but it trained me thoroughly and helped me stand out from other candidates during the interview process. This also gave me confidence in my day-to-day work, as my project at EPAM is closely related to the AWS Cloud.”

The war in Ukraine hit home deeply for EPAM, which has 14,000 employees in the country. It leapt into action to provide support and assistance as soon as the war began, turning their offices into 24/7 support centers for anyone needing refuge and committing $100 million in humanitarian aid and logistical on-the-ground support for its Ukrainian employees and their families. As a long-time AWS Partner, it was also in a position to help train new cloud engineers and provide job placement through ITSkills4U. The program provides cloud training and certification opportunities, as well as important “soft skills,” including career coaching and language instruction. To date, more than 16,000 Ukrainians have taken advantage of the ITSkills4U program available online.

The cloud: reliability in an unstable world

Cloud-based careers have proven a valuable stabilizing factor for many Ukrainians, helping people to build rewarding careers regardless of their location, and allowing for abrupt relocation, enabling many to prepare for the future, even while enduring a grueling present.

“I had to pack my whole family so we could move to a safer place,” says Holik. “But in a strange way the move actually helped me with my studies. Once we were gone, I was no longer going to my old job, which gave me much more time to dedicate to my education and new career.”

To smooth the path to employment for graduates from the program, ITSkills4U partnered with 43 different AWS customers and partners to provide networking, mentoring, and knowledge of potential open positions. EPAM, which hired Holik, operates globally, consistently appearing on Forbes Fast Tech 25 list of the 25 fastest growing tech companies.

“Entry-level specialists with AWS skills are essential for EPAM, and that’s exactly what ITSkills4U delivers,” says Andrii Kostromytskyi, EPAM’s Chief Talent Development Specialist. “AWS Certification is an important metric in the hiring process for us, as well as a systematic and effective way for learners to acquire skills and abilities. We continuously encourage our employees from entry-level all the way up to specialists to improve their cloud skills and acquire more certifications.”

Resilient learning, resilient infrastructure

Kostiantyn Ahafonov, another graduate of ITSkills4U who now works at EPAM, echoes the importance of certifications to career development. “Certifications help employers make good decisions about who to hire,” he says. “It not only elevates you within the candidate pool, it demonstrates that you’re interested and able to learn.”

Ahafonov and his family faced similar challenges to those Holik and his family encountered. “When the war started, we were bombed almost daily for two months. At that point we moved to Western Ukraine,” he says. “Then, six months later, the region where we had moved also came under attack, forcing us to move again. Regardless of where we were, though, I was able to continue my studies online.”

After attaining his AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and Solutions Architect – Associate certifications, Ahafonov landed a job with EPAM as a Junior Systems Engineer, but he has no plans to stop there. “With the help of ITSkills4U and EPAM Cloud & DevOps program, I am confident that I will be able to earn AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate and AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional,” he says. “I’m just getting started. It’s really important right now for Ukraine to build resilient infrastructure. Safety and reliability are what Ukraine needs right now.”

The impact of cloud migration in Ukraine, even after the start of the war, has been significant. In 2022, EPAM engineers worked with more than 25 Ukrainian universities to migrate critical resources from on-premise servers to the cloud, ensuring that students can continue their studies, even in the event of power disruption or damage to campus facilities.

“There’s no more reliable way to do that than in a decentralized system with high redundancy like the cloud,” says Kostromytskyi. “EPAM, through our partnership with AWS, couldn’t be happier to be able to provide that small bit of reliability in a turbulent time, both through providing services and helping train the next generation of cloud engineers.”

Read another inspiring story of Anastasiia Moiseienko, a Ukrainian refugee who pursued a career in Cloud DevOps with the help of ITSkills4U and EPAM Cloud & DevOps training program.