2019/09/11
This September, Master students of Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) who have chosen the MA + Information Service Management competency model will be able to draw professional knowledge and skills from a representative of the Dutch IT company Centric. Leen Blom, Centric's Research & Development Manager, who will be coming to Kaunas twice - in October and November - will conduct theoretical and practical sessions called Making Money in the Clouds.
Leen Blom is responsible for the development and smooth-running of Centric, which operates in ten countries and has over 4000 employees, has a rich work experience - from software development, database management, to IT architecture or leadership across IT departments. Having a good grasp on both inner processes and the diverse IT industry, in his lectures he provides deep insights and valuable generalizations. "I will share a course with students at KTU that gives us a glimpse into the real world of decision-making when working on major programming projects. I will explain and demonstrate with particular examples, how our company transformed itself from a traditional software seller into a cloud service provider. And something that should be of particular interest: together with the students, we will try to take the first steps of a cloud business by setting up a virtual cloud company," L. Blom speaks about the future training.
Focus on cloud solutions
The theme of the lectures is not accidental: since its establishment in Kaunas, Centric emphasizes that the main focus of the company is on cloud solutions. "When moving to Lithuania, we aimed to attract gifted and talented IT professionals to our team. In just one year, we managed to bring together a team of nearly 50 highly qualified employees with various experiences. Currently, they are working on Centric cloud architecture, engineering and service support. Some time later we started building a Machine Learning and Data Science team," says Freddie Veltmaat, the CTO of Centric, who, a year ago did a presentation to the KTU community about cloud solutions that are changing the face of the IT industry.
"Established in Kaunas, Centric IT Solutions Lithuania has been working with international clients from day one and at the same time is a Cloud Center of Excellence for Centric providing new cloud services. We are a modern IT organization committed to introducing cloud-based solutions in the most efficient and easy-to-control manner while focusing on sustainability, security, conformability, and IT service management standard. We change the rules using modern IT service management modules, cloud-based IT tools, and security control to ensure a complete DevOps cycle. This turns Centric into a cloud-based company," says the CTO of an international company.
An important part of working with the university
This partnership for knowledge sharing is part of a collaboration agreement signed this spring between Centric IT Solutions Lithuania and Kaunas University of Technology. The agreement foresees cooperation in preparing and implementing scientific research projects and the exchange of scientific and technological information.
"By appointing qualified employees to lead students' internships or by sending the company's representatives to give lectures on current trends and technologies in our industry, we are not only contributing to future talent growth but we are also promoting the Centric culture, where mentoring and supporting educational institutions and talented young people play a vital role. This year, as many as 8 of our staff are joining the KTU Mentoring Program to become student career mentors. They will help students with their personal growth and with the setting of career goals," says Paulius Samoška, head of Centric subdivision in Lithuania.
The MA + competency model offered to KTU graduate students is designed to provide students with additional knowledge and skills and to discover new career possibilities. The lectures are delivered not only by KTU lecturers but also by the employees of high-level business and public sector organizations, who also provide topics for students' final theses or practice-oriented assignments for projects.
