Two years after the introduction of education vouchers under the new Adult Education Act, Algebra University conducted an extensive survey in April among its participants (with a sample of 1,269 respondents) aimed at examining user satisfaction with vouchers, their demographic and educational structure, as well as career advancement and success in retraining for a different field of work. According to fresh data, from April 2022, when the voucher system was introduced, until today, 20,800 vouchers have been issued. Of that number, 11,612 participants have completed their education, 6,854 are currently attending a specific program, while the remaining ones are using a four-month period to activate their assigned voucher.
Vouchers were used equally by men (45 percent) and women (54.9 percent), with the majority being aged between 25 and 39 years (68.3 percent). Most participants are highly educated individuals who have completed some higher education program (64.7 percent), followed by 22.9 percent with completed four-year vocational secondary school.
The highest interest was recorded for frontend developers, graphic designers, UX/UI designers, database administrators, Python developers, and web designers. Interestingly, as many as 90 percent of them completed the selected education program on time, while the others are still in the process of attending. Most respondents cite the desire for additional education (51.7 percent) and career change (32.5 percent) as the main motivation for enrolling in the program, and 78 percent of them financed their education through the voucher program, meaning that education was completely free for them.
Interest in education programs through vouchers at Algebra has been exceptionally high, emphasized Igor Kundić, a member of the Algebra Management Board, adding that they have collected more than 12,000 applications in the past two years.
– We evaluate the program as excellent and believe that it can truly make a difference in increasing the number of ICT professionals in the country, both through retraining and creating new experts. Namely, the current number of around 64,000 ICT professionals is not sufficient to achieve all the goals of the Digital Croatia Strategy by 2032, so it is crucial to continue investing through funds available through EU funds – said Kundić.
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For adults, vouchers can help acquire additional skills that will make them more competitive in the labor market or help them retrain and continue their career path in a new profession. The survey showed that education programs were mostly enrolled by employed individuals (as much as 71.7 percent), whether they work in jobs related to the attended program or are employed in another field/sector. As many as 90.5 percent believe that the program fully covered the labor market requirements, and 63.6 percent believe that the completed program significantly influenced their career development or change.
For 82.6 percent of participants, practical work proved to be the best method of learning and following classes, which is confirmed by Antonela, a graduate graphic designer who decided to retrain as a frontend developer.
– The most useful thing for me was that I supplemented my basic knowledge through practical examples where I could see how some things would work in real life. Since I attended education for frontend development, where the topic and profession are very extensive and challenging to learn, it was at least challenging. The program gave me a good boost and raised my confidence that I lacked to dare to change my career. The intensity of the program was high, and it was very difficult alongside work, but with a great deal of motivation and organization, I succeeded. Two months after the final exam, I got the opportunity for my first job in a small IT company, currently as an intern, but it is important to start – said Antonela.
As the greatest advantage of the education program, Fran emphasizes the communication between the lecturer and the participants.
– The education I completed met my expectations. The communication with the lecturer was particularly useful, which was of high quality despite attending classes online. I recommended the program to colleagues and want to recommend it to others as well. It proved to be a perfect springboard into the world of IT and motivated me to work independently alongside the classes. After lectures, we would always receive tasks for repetition, and if we had problems solving the tasks, the lecturer was always ready to answer any questions – explained Fran, who was unemployed before the education program and after completion opened his own business focused on website development.
It is possible to use only one education voucher financed from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan 2021 – 2026, and all details regarding usage, as well as the application for any of the education programs included in the voucher system, are conducted through the HZZ website, which is responsible for their implementation.
