Digital experience centers are designed to inspire students by providing direct access to new technologies, allowing elementary and high school students to interact with virtual reality, robotics and robot programming through interactive activities and also lets them play with the latest humanoid robots and get closer to the world of digitalization via smart devices. The secretary emphasized that the centers aim to raise students’ interest in IT careers.
In addition, at the opening of the new Digital Experience Center in Debrecen Károly Solymár, Deputy State Secretary for Digitization at the Ministry of Innovation and Technology (ITM), stated that there are 25,000 vacant IT jobs in Hungary and that the purpose of these centers is to encourage more people to obtain the required training to fill these open positions.
Balázs Greinstetter highlighted the benefit of EU funding, that since 2017, HUF 8.3 billion of EU funding under the Operational Program for Economic Development and Innovation (Ginop), has been available to universities and colleges, and that a total of HUF 361 million of this was spent on the DigiTér Experience Center in Debrecen.
“The trio of innovation, modernization and digitalization define everything,” Greinstetter said, so acquiring digital competence is crucial for the future generation of workers.
The government wants to increase the number of adults with IT and digital competences and also increase cooperation between IT companies and training institutions in order to strengthen the competitiveness of the economy and Hungary’s performance in the ICT sector, a particular strength here in Debrecen and yet more needs to be done.
László Papp, the Mayor of Debrecen, said that more than 72,000 students are studying in Debrecen, and it is important that these students find work in an ever-expanding, high value-added economic environment. The mayor noted that 40 percent more applied for technical training at the University of Debrecen last year– an encouraging sign.