Bratislava, Iasi – The ESET R&D center in Iasi, Romania, is working with the European Migration Agency (EMA) and the Technical University of Moldova (TUM) in the capital, Chisinau, to launch a new Cyber Security Academy.  The project is currently slated to last for one year (starting in August 2020), after which the most successful graduating students will be offered professional internships at ESET. Another area of the new program’s focus is on talented young women and their futures in information technology.

The European Migration Agency, in cooperation with ESET and the Technical University of Moldova, will renovate and equip a new IT Laboratory, which will subsequently serve as the basis for the new Cyber Security Academy. TUM ranks among the country’s leading universities in terms of cooperation with the private sector.

Along with the creation of the Academy, the project also aims to focus on young women in IT. ESET is co-financing the project with a local Moldovan NGO TEKEDU. The GirlsGoIT program and TEKEDU will support the transition of young women into the ICT sector and organize workshops in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The whole project is co-financed via official development aid by the Slovak Republic, SlovakAid.

“Iasi, where this ESET R&D center is located, used to be for 300 years the historical capital of Moldova and later of Romania; thus, we could not be at a more symbolic nor closer place for both countries. We are very much looking forward to supporting the young IT & cybersec talent from Moldova as part of the freshly launched Academy project, and are looking forward to working with and helping them as professional interns at ESET,” says Andrei Ciubotaru, Managing Director of the Iasi R&D center and Head of Endpoint Security at ESET. “Moreover, we are happy to financially support part of the project focusing on encouraging young and talented women to consider the IT sector as their future workplace,” he adds.

According to EMA, “The main challenge the sector is facing is the lack of skilled workforce, which is compounded by a massive brain drain from Moldova. This creates the opportunity to attract more women into the Moldovan Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector, as their representation remains relatively low.” Moreover, the Moldovan ICT sector also faces the challenge of ensuring interconnection of national educational processes with the corporate sector, in order to align with the ever-changing requirements of the labor market.”