In the spring, EPAM University Programs organized the IT Marathon for Ukrainian university students, a unique event in the form of an intensive online course. Our team's experiment became an urgent response to the challenges the war in Ukraine presented for higher education. A total of 600 individuals eager to learn the fundamentals of development, testing, and web design took part in three weeks of lectures and master classes led by the EPAM University teaching staff. We’ll tell you how it was.

Case study: resume training

We previously wrote about how EPAM cloud engineers helped 20+ universities move critical infrastructure to the cloud environment. We did not stop there and accepted the next challenge: resuming studies at the partner universities of EPAM University, which were affected by active hostilities.

We decided on the Marathon — a fast and in-depth immersion in current technologies, without superfluous theory and under the constant supervision of experts. Participants met with a lecturer in Teams every day. During the two-hour meeting, they received the essential introductory information on the topic and immediately put it into practice: they wrote, tested, and deployed the project in the AWS cloud environment live.

The participants finalized their projects step by step while gaining practical knowledge on a dozen subjects, including object-oriented programming, database design, coding in Java, JavaScript, HTML/CSS fundamentals, and even business analysis and interface design. The order of the course topics repeated the typical life cycle of an IT project. The Marathon itself was divided into two stages based on the level of difficulty: the first required participants to pass the test, and the second required them to pass the test and upload their web application to a personal repository and one of the cloud services (AWS, GCP, etc.).

17 EPAM specialists worked on creating the course and teaching students: they conducted 15 lectures, webinars, and workshops lasting 26 hours in total. Together, they helped 100+ students complete the second stage, and 200+ participants received certificates for completing the first stage — an incredible outcome for the experiment :)

Did the course work?

Who better to tell it than the participants? At the end of the Marathon, we asked them to share their thoughts anonymously. So, did the students like the IT Marathon?

Yes, yes, and yes! I am delighted that I participated in the marathon!

I truly enjoyed the marathon, and I want to thank the organizers; it was my first experience of the kind, and it was amazing. You are the best!

An awesome and productive marathon.

Yes! The marathon gave me a broader vision of opportunities in IT; plus, it was the first course for which I received a certificate, and I am so proud of it!

Yes, I quite liked it. The presenters just perfectly spoke about their profession.

We also got our share of criticism:

Everything was great, but it would be better if the desktop was in full-screen mode without a camera during practice sessions.

We will definitely consider it for the upcoming Marathon! 😅

Our lecturers, developing in Java and JavaScript, the basics of Front-End development, and the presentation by our recruiters Lina Shevchuk and Myroslava Nikolaieva with advice on building a CV and LinkedIn profile — were the most well-liked by the participants overall. Writing code for their projects was their least favorite task (although it seemed easy during the lecture).

Conclusions and results

The field test of the IT Marathon convinced our team that this format is an excellent addition to the classic university training program for IT specialists. Its advantages — short lectures packed with essential practical knowledge and constant access to learning materials — came into play during the war.

Because the training goal was clearly defined — developing a website — instead of a generalized theoretical understanding of how a project works, the participants gained real experience working with code, creating a convenient user interface, testing, and using cloud technologies. This experience will help them in the future in choosing their main profession.

The EPAM University team hopes that students will make the next steps toward an IT career together with the company. But most importantly, we are glad that we were able to help Ukrainians and higher education in such a difficult time.

We are already discussing the next event in the format of the Marathon for universities. Stay tuned!