Interview with Gordana Palchevska–Ristovska, COO of Qinshift Academy for www.inovativnost.mk
Macedonia’s number one education brand, Seavus Educational and Development Center has recently continued to operate as Qinshift Academy. What does the rebranding of SEDC mean for its partners and students, as well as for mentors and the entire team responsible for leading the educational process?
We experienced the rebranding and merger of six large IT companies as a natural process after three years of getting to know each other under the umbrella of Arikoma, but I wouldn’t be completely honest if I didn’t say that we were faced with challenges. It is a favorable circumstance that our core business also involves following innovations in the fast-developing IT industry, new trends are yesterday’s news for us, so we accepted the rebranding, which, among other things, also meant serious adaptation, as a positive innovation. Here, of course, the main motive was the end result, a community of over 3,500 colleagues, a several times multiplied partner network, open doors for international cooperation and mentors from other countries. We learned that we can learn a lot from each other, and package even more successful products.
Students will directly feel the benefits in the form of increased opportunities for practice work on international real projects, trainers through expanding the trainers network with Qinshift colleagues from other companies we have merged with, and partners through the creation of even more qualified and experienced students as a result of these benefits.
What benefits can you highlight from SEDC’s transformation into an international brand?
What pleases me the most is that we will implement an activity that we have implemented so far, but from now on we will do it on an international level, an activity that is valuable for all the protagonists, and comes as a natural process and a win-win scenario. Our students will work on projects created and mentored by our colleagues from other companies with whom we established Qinshift together. Our nearly 15 years of experience as an educational service at Seavus will now be replicated across other firms we continue to work with under the same brand. This includes talent programs for training and recruiting new hires, transforming partnerships from corporate to educational with major vendors, expanding our roster of trainers with experts from other countries, internationalizing dozens of academic programs, and increasing employment opportunities for our students across all Qinshift offices globally.
Can new curriculums be expected in line with the global character of the academy? Have certain guidelines, studies, etc. changed after the rebranding?
It is our practice to revise the curriculum several months before the start of each academic year. There are basic teaching postulates, but the curriculum coordinators and lead trainers adapt them, so that regardless of the rebranding, the programs are aligned with technological innovations, enriched with courses for personal and career development. What I can highlight as a novelty are several advanced short programs for the most attractive academies, which will be international and target a wider region. In the coming period, we will have more news on the territory of Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Second on the priority list are the academies for the smallest, here we will enrich the program with new modules, and after the record-doubled number of students this year, our responsibility is also doubled, to respond to their expectations with more attractive, new programs.
With the CPD accreditation of IThink Academy, the participation of students in project activities, even in mentoring activities, is much greater, and as a next step, there will be their involvement in the process of creating courses.
How do you guide students to greater engagement and success in their studies? What initiatives or programs are being implemented to improve student outcomes?
When all the above-mentioned quality factors are fulfilled, and yet the motive and commitment eludes us, the assistants and trainers who were once our students play the most important role in that process. From their own experience, they know best in which period of teaching and why interest may drop and resistance to studies may appear.
Since three years ago, monthly meetings with students have been introduced at academies that have more than two groups at the same time, in order to feel the pulse of the group, to improve the knowledge transfer process, and to communicate common goals and strategies.
Courses for soft skills such as presentation and communication skills, career counseling, mentoring of project activities and work in teams that students form themselves, are also motivating, because they provide an immediate defocus from classical teaching and still work in addition to building their student portfolio and direct experience of corporate collaboration.
Some of the academies organize hackathons, competitions for the best graphic or marketing ideas, and many other challenges that bring freshness to the educational process. These projects build the student’s sense of experience and confidence by simulating activities they would encounter in potential junior positions.
SEDC is a well-known brand in our market, with a large number of students, employment opportunities after completing studies and providing a high standard of education. What is the key to continuously improving the quality of studies at Qinshift Academy?
Several aspects are key, because quality is valued differently by different profiles of people, and sometimes a good program without good implementation or without practical application is almost unusable.
I believe that the first link in the chain of knowledge transfer is the educational program, creating curriculum by people from the IT industry, making presentations, laboratory environments, LMS platform, exercises and everything needed for a quality realized teaching process.
When this set of materials is placed at the service of a professional who does not improvise, but only conveys the material in the best possible way with his experience, and at the same time has an assistant who helps the process, articulates the atmosphere of the class, assigns and corrects homework , the classes are really a pure exchange of knowledge.
The selection of trainers/co-trainers/assistants is the second link and is a process we are particularly proud of as it is already prestigious to be part of the Qinshift Academy mentoring team. Trainers without experience undergo training, we select assistants from the best students, who after several successfully held courses are promoted to co-trainers, trainers, and lead trainers.
I can freely say that we are a student-centric academy, and anyone who has left our desks, I guarantee that they have only words of praise for the relationship with our entire team, not only the trainers. With this, in the first place, as a third link in the process of quality studies, I single out the clear setting of student expectations. I think that we have already built an image that everything that is said during enrollment, the student receives, but here I also mean the fact that we are explicit in defining what our expectations are from the students, how much they should invest, where ours ends, where their serious engagement begins. Those realistic expectations of the students are the third link, which implies their investments, and we already have the formula for success.
The landscape of IT and digital studies is rapidly evolving. How do you establish and maintain partnerships with industry companies? Can you give an example of a successful collaboration?
We have been successfully building the partner network and deepening the cooperation for almost 15 years. We have inherited many beautiful collaborations from the acquisition with Alexandria, and in the last 5 years we have been growing in regional frameworks as well. A large number of companies themselves turn to us for cooperation, looking for successful students for the recruitment process, realization of an adapted program for their needs, and when the alumni base counts over 20,000 students, the realization is almost always two-way successful in a very short term.
At the end of each year, we organize a Career Connections event to which we invite both partners and alumni, to formally introduce them and initiate the collaboration.
However, I cannot help but favor the cooperation with Qinshift (Seavus) and I point out the last statistic, the figure of more than half of the students from the Computer Networks and ITOps Academy who got a job in the Operations 24/7 division, immediately after completing their studies at Qinshift Academy.
When this is put as a piece in the puzzle of 6 companies, 28 offices globally, more than 200 customers and incredible support from the parent company KKCG, the big picture is more than inspiring and contains many success stories that will help our core purpose – employed students who will create a better future for all.