Development of the “Inclusive Hub” site for the non-governmental organization “Emmaus”, which helps to integrate people with disabilities into society.

One of the problems of the education quality in the IT field is the disconnection of teachers and instructors from constant practical work on real projects, and hence the lack of practical skills passed on to students.

At the same time, it is a known fact that in order to get a successful start in the profession, it is important for young specialists to gain their first work experience under the guidance of qualified mentors. It is, however, very difficult for beginners to find vacancies. Even more so when it comes to young specialists with disabilities.

Given these social problems, one of the strategic directions of Infopulse’s corporate social responsibility is the goal of sustainable development №4: “Quality Education”. As a socially responsible business, the company seeks to promote the development of education in Ukraine and help young specialists gain experience in real projects. The Education team, which realizes educational projects in the company, aims to develop partnerships with universities and to implement CSR projects together with the partners. One of such projects was the development of the “Inclusive Hub” site for the non-governmental organization “Emmaus”. 

Inclusive hub is an open space for the implementation of initiatives for education, leisure and vocational guidance of young people with disabilities and boarding school graduates. In order to inform the audience about the events and projects that will take place in the hub, it is necessary to create a website. The Hub serves as a platform for experts from different cities of Ukraine and around the world to share their experience. It is also a platform for meetings to create future significant projects with public organizations, businesses, and government agencies. 

 

PROBLEM SOLUTION 

 

Given the problem of gaining practical experience by students of IT specialties, Infopulse and National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” decided to create a project to develop a website for the Inclusive Hub. KPI students of the 1st-5th years of studies acted as developers, testers, analysts, team leaders, and designers. Among the people involved in the project was Vitalii Prytula, a student of National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute” and a supervisee of the Emmaus organization.

University teachers performed the roles of project managers and technical managers, and Infopulse specialists were mentors. The customer of the project was the NGO “Emmaus”. During the project, students and teachers acquired practical skills in the following technologies: ASP.NET Core, Angular, PostgreSQL, Figma, Razor Pages, Google Maps APIs.

The site has been designed in such a way that it can be used as a design platform for creating similar sites in the future. 

 

“Infopulse is a company that opens up opportunities, and I am glad that we can give university students the chance to gain necessary practical experience. Thanks to this project, we not only helped the NGO “Emmaus” to create a platform for new initiatives, but also drew public attention to the need and importance of such projects for all participants. I am very grateful for the opportunity to supervise such projects that help our mentors share experience and knowledge, and help students get additional practice and motivation. I believe that the most valuable contribution we can make to the development of the country is through sharing knowledge and experience with future experts.”

Alina Blyzniuk, leader of the Education team, coordinator of the project participants

 

RESULT

 

A website has been created for the Inclusive Hub, https://inclusivehub.com.ua, which will feature news and announcements of the hub, as well as the information about cooperation and donations. 

The implementation of this project helped to achieve the following goals:

  • realizing a volunteer project within the framework of the company’s social responsibility;

  • improving the level of student training by way of tackling real work tasks;

  • providing the opportunity for teachers to gain practical experience and later share their knowledge with future students and improve the level of their training;

  • providing opportunities for teachers to receive additional funding, which solves the problem of staff attrition at the University.

Students gained their first practical experience of participating in a real project, acquired practical skills of working with modern technologies, of project management and teamwork, underwent vocational training organized by Infopulse during the project, took part in training sessions on writing a CV and going to interviews, and developed their English language skills.

Vitalii Prytula, a student of National Technical University – «Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute» and a supervisee of the NGO “Emmaus”, took part in the development of the project, which not only became his diploma paper, but also an important step in social adaptation and the first experience of teamwork. Vitaly has successfully defended his diploma paper and plans to master the profession of a web developer in the future. 

See more about Vitalii in the video: https://bit.ly/2BGWAPq

 

Teachers of NTUU “KPI” updated their knowledge of modern technologies and project management methodology. In general, all participants gained experience of working on a socially important project and used the opportunity to cooperate in an inclusive team with equal opportunities for all its members.

 

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