The Technological Education Foundation (TEF) was officially launched in Yerevan in May 2024.

TEF is a non-profit organization created by the Armenian Code Academy (ACA). The Foundation’s mission is to advance sustainable development across Armenia by democratizing access to high-quality technological education.

In an interview with Mediamax, Narek Aslikyan, the founder of the Armenian Code Academy, and Levon Tadevosyan, the Executive Director of the Technological Education Foundation, discussed the main directions of their work, the importance of institutionalizing the foundation’s activities, and the potential of Armenia’s regions.

Investing in the education of the best

Narek Aslikyan

The Armenian Code Academy has been providing scholarships to students with the best academic results since the day of its establishment in 2015. The Academy’s motto is: “if you can become our success story and the best graduate, we are ready to invest in your education.”

After 2020, we also added scholarships for war veterans.

Narek Aslikyan

Photo: Mediamax

At the end of 2022, we decided to make this process more systematic, hence the Technological Education Foundation (TEF) was created. This boosted the number of other thematic scholarships provided by various organizations through our foundation.

Levon Tadevosyan

There was also the issue of trust. It was important that the companies providing the scholarship were well familiar with the Armenian Code Academy and trusted it. In addition, by creating the foundation, we wanted to make the entire process more institutional and transparent. Today, we have a monitoring mechanism allowing both the donor, the individual providing assistance, and the Armenian Code Academy to know who exactly receives the scholarship, how their training is going, what results they have achieved, and how their career develops in the future.

Levon Tadevosyan and Narek Aslikyan

Photo: Mediamax

We officially launched the TEF Foundation in 2024 when we already had a certain basis and results.

Scholarships, digital and financial literacy and career guidance courses

Levon Tadevosyan

Today, TEF Foundation does not only provide scholarships. This is an organization with a clear vision and mission: every person, regardless of their location and financial situation, should have the opportunity to receive the best technological education.

The development of the regions is very important for Armenia’s development. A country cannot develop if the society and the education are centered in one place.

Our numerous visits to the regions and contacts with various organizations since 2022 have shown that the so-called group of specialists gathered in Yerevan is often assembled from the regions. At the same time, when a technological company wants to open a branch in the region, it faces a shortage of qualified specialists.

It’s like the “chicken and egg” story: on the one hand, companies need to move to the regions, jobs need to be created so that local youth see this opportunity and strive to get a quality education, on the other hand, to open branches companies are waiting for qualified specialists in the regions. To somehow break this cycle, we have decided to educate young people (smiles - ed.).

Levon Tadevosyan and Narek Aslikyan

 

Today, one of the cornerstones of the foundation’s work is the Scholarship Fund. TEF provides scholarships to our compatriots from Artsakh, war veterans, people with financial issues, and people with disabilities.

We also have another important direction: educational programs aimed at developing digital and financial literacy. This also stems from the interests of the state.

Together with the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), we implemented a comprehensive Basics of Digital Literacy Development course with the total duration of more than 20 hours. The target beneficiaries of this program were 1,000 women living in the regions who were not studying or working at the time. At the same time, it was open to all interested individuals. Now the second, more in-depth stage of this course is underway, which is also free of charge and open to those who are interested in participating. The financial literacy course was implemented in partnership with EasyPay. The results were pretty exciting: more than 5,000 applicants and about 2,000 people who have already completed this course.

Levon Tadevosyan and Narek Aslikyan

Photo: Mediamax

The Foundation is also actively working to expand into the school education sector, for example in terms of career guidance in the field of technology. We do have a serious problem here because most people think that the tech sector is only about programming and writing code. In reality, if a young person is good at drawing and loves art, he can also find his place in this field, becoming, for example, a graphic designer. Based on all this, the ACA “Compass” course was created.

Narek Aslikyan

It is important that during this course we discuss career guidance issues with students not by conducting some tests or introducing them to existing professions, but in a more practical way. We have identified 8 professions in the field and give participating students the opportunity to complete a simple task in each of them: write code, draw something for design, etc.

Narek Aslikyan

Photo: Mediamax

The pilot version of this program was implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of High-Tech Industry in 9 cities of 3 regions, with a total of 400 participants. We decided that the program would be most effective for 13-14-year-old middle school students who, if properly guided at that stage, would make better selections for the high school, whether it is physics and math, humanities or any other specialization.

“The Foundation gave us the opportunity not to say “no””

Narek Aslikyan

The events that took place in Artsakh in 2023 proved that it was important to put the activities of the TEF Foundation on an institutional basis. At that time, we decided to provide 50 scholarships to our forcibly displaced compatriots, since we realized that many people simply would not understand how to start from scratch, they would also need socialization, and this could become a good opportunity. As a result, within a few days of announcing the scholarship, we received over 300 applications. We were aware that we would not be able to say “no” to any of the applicants who met the criteria, but at the same time, it would be very difficult to implement this on our own. Therefore, the number of scholarships provided in this direction has now exceeded 700.

The creation of the Fund and its activity gave us the opportunity not to say “no”. A number of large tech companies also joined us, providing scholarships on their behalf. The only condition for becoming a program beneficiary was to get accepted, that is, to have sufficient knowledge.

Levon Tadevosyan

I have mentioned that the Fund also provides the opportunity for monitoring. In this case, too, each participating organization clearly knows who received their scholarship, where they are at the moment, and what knowledge they received. These organizations receive reports, and sometimes they even hire the recipients of their scholarships. This is an extremely transparent mechanism; the investor sees the effectiveness and purposefulness of his investments.

Levon Tadevosyan and Narek Aslikyan

Photo: Mediamax

We are now working to physically expand the model of this educational center operating in Yerevan to the regions. We are thoroughly discussing with our partners the options for creating free regional academies. Simultaneously, today ACA has a professional and dedicated teaching staff who travel to the regions every week and teach there.

The potential of the regions

Levon Tadevosyan

Armenia’s regions definitely have huge potential today. In order to properly realize it, two circumstances must be taken into account.

Firstly, a young person should be able to receive quality education and find employment at the place of residence. Secondly, a young person who came to the capital to get education should want and have the opportunity to return to the region and work there.

Levon Tadevosyan and Narek Aslikyan

Photo: Mediamax

This decentralization is also very important for the development of the tech sector. I am confident that if there are jobs in the regions, many Yerevan residents will also want to move. For example, Narek himself. One day, if we have a center in Tavush or Lori, he will definitely move (laughs - ed.).

Narek Aslikyan

At the same time, we have to understand that the development of the labor market in the regions does not depend on one or two structures. Several employers as well as the state, of course, should simultaneously work here. It is a positive fact that the Ministry of High-Tech Industry is also willing to work in this direction. Perhaps some privileges can serve as intensives for companies. The community, the companies and the ministry should work together in this case, and we are ready to play the role of a mediator since we participate in the educational process of the beneficiaries.

“Without the TEF Foundation, we would not have implemented 90 percent of today’s programs”

Levon Tadevosyan

During the activity of TEF Foundation, we have already been able to provide scholarships to thousands of people. For the first time, we have trained 16 regional teachers with the support of FAST Foundation.

We managed to implement programs that we had also done before, but not on such a scale and not so systematically. Today we have a clear vision, a point that we want to reach in the regions.

Narek Aslikyan

If it weren’t for the idea and the team of TEF Foundation, ACA would not have been able to implement 90 percent of today’s programs on its own. For me, this is the biggest criterion. We would have thought, we would have wanted, we would have realized how important they are, but we wouldn’t have been able to do it. The Scholarship Fund would have also been incomparably smaller. It was this foundation that gave us the opportunity not to say “no” to the applicants.

Yana Shakhramanyan

Photos by Emin Aristakesyan