Initiatives with a mission: How EPAM Bulgaria supports local education

Education meets innovation at EPAM Bulgaria EPAMers are committed to making a positive, tangible impact on the local community through the work we do every day. 

Our corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are more than just initiatives: they are our vision. We champion environmental protection, support global and local communities, craft educational and extracurricular programs for children and young people and much more.  

"[Through this work], we aim to create a bridge between business and education by engaging in every stage of the educational journey of young people to move forward, ready for a more connected and digital future, shares Vladimir Natchev, Country Head EPAM Bulgaria. 

All CSR initiatives in the company start as employee ideas. Together, we make them a reality and unleash their potential, receiving support from other enthusiasts who recognize our joint mission as theirs. 

That is why we are happy to share that our efforts were awarded the SEE Innovation, Technology, and Sourcing Award this year, recognizing these programs and the hard work of our Bulgarian EPAMers in their community.  

'eKIDS' interactive program teaches kids about engineering 

We continued to implement the EPAM eKids program, which provides programming training for young children with the free interactive computer language Scratch. With the help of our dedicated volunteers, children can  discover new features and opportunities, program their projects and develop the knowledge and skills they need for potential future tech careers. 

"For digital skills like programming, there is no age that is too young. The inspiring examples are endless–seeing children with shining eyes who pass on their first completed and working Scratch projects, meeting teachers with many years of experience who are looking at the Scratch platform for the first time and with a little help from us, organizing Scratch lessons themselves, reaching the point where students who have passed the Scratch Trainer course themselves and start teaching the little ones. This is exactly what drives us to find time and energy for our volunteer initiatives." 
Zdravko Duchev, Software Engineer Manager and Head of Volunteer Education Programs 

Primary and high school students explore the vast possibilities of software engineering 

The eKids project does not stop with elementary school ages. It is constantly growing and developing. EPAM has been among the main technological partners of Burgas Municipality and Burgas Professional High School since its inception in 2018 to help build an educational institution where students can receive modern education to develop more practical projects. Our company supports the school with the equipment of halls and laboratories, and we help teachers build their business expertise and conduct additional classes and initiatives for children. 

Coding Kids platform teaches hard and soft skills 

Over the past few years with our partners in Burgas, we launched the Coding Kids project. Within the initiative, students from eleventh grade take on the role of educators and teach Scratch to their younger peers. In this way, students can acquire new knowledge and skills related to programming, and high schoolers work on soft skills which are extremely important when entering the business world. 

In 2022, we organized two free editions of Coding Kids. In the pilot, 160+ children participated; in the next, over 550 participated. 

Students and representatives of the high school, as well as community leaders from the Municipality of Burgas, participated in an event “Port to the Future - Science & Tech Fair” organized by EPAM, where a discussion panel on "education of the Future" and full-day open-access workshops on programming and robotics were held. The participants had the opportunity to learn more about the professions of the future and to meet specialists from our team who talked about how they chose a career related to technology. 

EPAM has also supported Sofia's Vocational High School of Telecommunications over the past year. Our partnership included mentoring under the European "Student Practices – 2" project. The project's main objective is to increase the number of students in schools to acquire professional qualifications and training to adapt to the needs of the labor market. During the project, EPAMers introduced students to the work of QA specialists, talking about developing technological products and providing software solutions. 

Creating sustainable relationships between universities, lecturers, students and IT business 

EPAM Bulgaria is among the main partners of Sofia University and, in particular, the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (FMI). Our company exclusively supports students majoring in Data Analytics, and in 2023, we welcomed the program's second class. Building long-term cooperation relationships is a natural continuation of efforts to promote digital innovation in the education system. 

We chose to support the specialty of Data Analytics because it develops some of the most valuable knowledge in the industry at the moment. We believe that together with the teachers at the university, we can build an environment in which students can progress quickly and effectively in their educational and career paths. 

"EPAM aims to build an effective and up-to-date learning process that pays special attention to the needs of students and teachers to improve current methods of machine learning, AI and other digital innovations. Our colleagues mentor and prepare future staff to enter the business environment seamlessly and allow them to work on real projects. The company provides scholarships for outstanding students and is committed to donating advanced equipment, which already equips four halls at FMI." 
Dean Palejev, Manager, Data Analytics Consulting  

All students can participate in a variety of joint initiatives, career guidance days and EPAM lectures. We also organize conferences like Drive-in Conf, connecting visitors with IT professionals. All these steps are part of our mission to support the leaders of the future with the knowledge and skills they need today.

Engaging with our extended communities through education and innovation programs has always been a big part of our story. If you want to learn more about EPAM's CSR programs, please visit https://www.epam.com/about/who-we-are/corporate-responsibility.