THE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM AT STARLABS, A TECH LAB IN KOSOVO

THE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM AT STARLABS, A TECH LAB IN KOSOVO In addition to contributing to the technology market, with the services it provides, StarLabs has opened its doors to young people who want to work in this field, enabling them to prepare for the labor market. Prishtina, February 2022 – It’s a normal day of work at StarLabs. And Emini, a 23-year-old from Gjilan, is sitting at his desk. His big headphones are on his shoulders. You never know when he’ll need them. The 23-year-old from Gjilan has been part of the StarLabs team of programmers since 2020. It was the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the lockdown period, the time when And decided to apply for a program he had heard of online, which StarLabs was offering to students and new graduates of the Faculty of Computer Science and beyond. “I saw the application and to be honest it was very accessible,” And says. “It was the beginning of the pandemic, and in the application, it stated that we could get into an online internship program. Another thing, that distinguishes this application from others I have seen, is that it was an advantage for us, the newly graduates since it required very little or no experience at all,” explains And enthusiastically.He had successfully completed the first phase of the StarLabs internship program, which started in March 2020. The co-founder and the CTO of Starlabs, Darsej Rizaj, explains that the internship program was first born as a need of the company to recruit talents, but also as a contribution that StarLabs has decided to make to the technology community and young people in Kosovo, providing vocational training. “We’ve been building a community, it’s an investment and it’s important to understand that it’s very easy to hire employees, but at some point, we exhaust the market, as was the case. So it’s good to have some sort of Corporate Responsibility and to create resources, and the second thing is that we are building a community for these people, these young talents who want to work in the field of technology,” says Rizaj. Darsej Rizaj, co-founder and CTO of StarLabs. Photo: Kushtrim Tërnava/Q&A Media for StarLabs The access to a community that shares common values and visions – as Erina Gashi, the backend and the beneficiary of the internship program at Starlabs explains – is a must, especially for young people who are introduced to this profession. “I’ve perhaps had an advantage compared to others because I grew up in a family of programmers, and I got to know how to talk about technology. But we also definitely need a society and a community outside the family and here at StarLabs, I’ve found it. We know each other, we have very good relations and we understand each other well,” says Erina, 20, from Prishtina. Erina is in the third year of her studies at the Faculty of Computer Sciences, and among other things she says that the StarLabs internship program, which she started in August last year, has helped her enormously to understand the concepts that she had learned in theory, to now practice them, but also to expand this knowledge. “Certainly, both of them matter, you must have a basis to be able to get a job and start well. It’s good to know the theoretical fundamentals of programming to know how to access it, the things you learn at the university, but it’s still not enough. It’s somewhat vague, it’s like you’re not dealing with something concrete, we have had some projects at the faculty that were shorter, etc. While at work it’s different, you have more information, you have more time, etc.,” says Erina. Erinë Gashi, 20, from Prishtina, grew up in a family of programmers, but in StarLabs she found her community. Photo: Kushtrim Tërnava/Q&A Media for StarLabs “There were cases when – in the middle or at the end of the program – out of the 50 candidates we had, 10 got employed at StarLabs, while up to 10 or 5 others were immediately employed in other companies,” Neziraj points out, stressing that through this program, which is completely free for those selected, they are recruiting professionals for the entire technology market in Kosovo. Since 2020 to date, StarLabs has delivered 6 internship programs. The last one started in February this year. Kujtim Neziraj, technical director at StarLabs, explained that the programs are implemented quarterly, and sometimes more often, depending on the space and the needs. Neziraj added that there are over 100 applications for each program. “We have had up to 400 applications in several programs, and usually we filter applications and reach groups of 50 to 100 people for one internship program,” he said. Neziraj also says that each participant in the internship program, who is subject to a certain, routine task of developing a profile of his/her own, becomes part of a team and is monitored and mentored by a leader, who is a StarLabs employee. The entire internship program process lasts 6 months, with three opportunities for the invitation to a paid internship at the company. The first is through an interview if the candidates are considered to be able to start immediately with the paid internship and the work with clients of the company; the other two possibilities are with demos where the candidates have space to introduce themselves and the work they have done during the program. Kujtim Neziraj, Technical Director at StarLabs. Photo: Kushtrim Tërnava/Q&A Media for StarLabs St: A Technology Lab The internship program, in addition to being a good opportunity for StarLabs but also for the technology market to benefit professionals and talents, provides tremendous opportunities for skill-building, disciplining, creating a working culture, networking, and leadership opportunities for both young people and their mentors. Darsej Rizaj, the co-founder of StarLabs, explains how.”The other side of the coin is that the program is an opportunity for everyone, not just the young people who are developing but also