Help Ukrainian Refugees Start a Career in Tech

We are Beetroot Academy, a Swedish-Ukrainian tech school, helping people switch to tech since 2014 when the war in Ukraine first started in Donbas. Together with the Swedish fundraising foundation Ioco Arma Nostra, we join our efforts and provide tech education scholarships to Ukrainian refugees. We want to cover scholarships for 1000+ Ukrainian refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), allowing them to start a new career and secure a stable income to support themselves and their loved ones. Donate whatever you can — every donation counts and can change people's lives!

The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine is causing a massive humanitarian crisis that has displaced 10 million people, including more than 3 million who have fled Ukraine. Most of the refugees are women and young people who lost everything, including their jobs and sources of income, and many have children and sometimes elderly family members to care for.

To support Ukrainian refugees and IDPs, especially those with families to rebuild their livelihoods, Beetroot Academy and fundraising foundation Ioco Arma Nostra are launching a fundraising campaign.

How will we help a Ukrainian refugee start a career in tech?

We will create an open call for Ukrainian refugees and IDPs to apply. Applicants will be selected based on a transparent needs assessment system – applicants who are caring for children will be prioritized.

Selected applicants can choose from one of the following tech courses:

- Front-end development

- UI/UX design

- Project management in IT

- Python development

- C#

- Business analysis

- QA manual

All courses will be conducted 100% remotely in a safe location for students and teachers. Practical lessons will take place in live virtual classrooms after office hours, in groups of 10-15 people guided by industry-leading specialists, in either Ukrainian or English depending on the student’s preference.

From home, every student can access theoretical material provided via our Learning Management System. A student is expected to spend a minimum of 20 hours studying per week. All students will get access to our alumni community, so that experienced graduates can help their peers by guiding them through their career switch, sharing news and vacancies, and acting as mentors.

On top of that, we provide support in students' job search skills, such as CV creation and interviewing. We also connect them to our extensive network of more than 200 partner companies to assist in making the right connections to find a job in IT/tech.

What are our next steps?

At this point, our number one priority is raising the necessary funds to cover the expenses for as many scholarships as possible. We are reaching out to people, companies, charities, and the public sector for their assistance.

In parallel with the fundraising campaign, we are reaching out to Ukrainian communities to collect information about refugees and IDPs, who are looking for support to restart their careers and are willing to pursue this in tech.

To help people apply for our scholarships, we’ve created an online form that would allow us to manage applications and prioritize them. Similarly, we call for the help of people and companies who are willing to join us on this mission, by financing tuition for Ukrainians that were forced to lose their jobs and livelihood.

How can you join this initiative?

DONATE. SHARE. TEACH.

DONATE— every donation counts. We will provide scholarship that covers tech education, career guidance, and employment support efforts to help Ukrainians start a new life.

SHARE with friends or colleagues at work. Information support is crucial for us.

TEACH at Beetroot Academy on a paid part-time basis. If you have 3+ years of experience in tech, please check our vacancies or email our recruitment team : [email redacted]demy

Why careers in tech?

Tech education is one of the most impactful and cost-effective ways to help socially vulnerable people create a safe and stable livelihood. Tech is the fastest growing industry globally, especially in Ukraine, wherein in 2021, it accounted for 4% of national GDP and employed more than 300 000 Ukrainians. At the same time, there will be an estimated global shortage of 85 million skilled tech workers by 2030, pushing international companies to increasingly work with tech specialists from around the world. This unlocks opportunities for anyone to start working in this industry, no matter where they live. With intensive and practice-oriented tech education, along with extensive career and networking support, we are helping thousands of people start their tech careers every day.

Why Beetroot Academy?

We are Beetroot Academy, a Swedish-Ukrainian social enterprise on a mission to help people have great careers in the Digital Economy. Our purpose revolves around providing practical tech education, taught by industry professionals in various high-in-demand specializations, combined with meaningful career support and industry networking.

For this fundraising campaign, we have partnered with the Ioco Arma Nostra, a Swedish fundraising foundation that has helped hundreds of children and families in Ukraine since 2018.

Our journey began in 2014, in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Crimea and Donbas, as a pilot project to use tech education to help Ukrainian IDPs restore their lives and their source of income by starting a career as a tech specialist. This helped us discover the untapped potential of tech education as a tool for helping victims of war.

Since then, we've provided education to more than 7000 people, of which 50% are women. Thanks to our impact-driven approach, 90% of students graduate successfully, and about 70% of them find a job in the tech industry, and in 2021 alone we stood for 5% of the new talent funnel into the Ukrainian tech industry that year.

In partnership with organizations such as UNDP, UNFPA, Sida, USAID, and more, we have provided scholarships for more than 800 victims of war and other socially vulnerable groups. Our team currently consists of 60 specialists working full time and around 100 teachers ready to offer a high-quality education to our students.

How will we share our progress?

We will provide regular updates about the campaign on the GoFundMe platform and on our website, such as:

- Progress on fundraising and the provision of scholarships for Ukrainian refugees and IDPs

- Scholarship recipients and updates on their learning experience.

- Graduation projects of the students will be presented to the public, and partners who are willing to employ or offer scholarships will be invited to graduation events.

- Success Rate. The total number of students who successfully finished the course and graduates who get hired in the tech industry.

- Transparent reporting. Once this initiative is completed, a full report on everything that was achieved will be shared with supporters and the public.

We will also invite 10 scholarship participants to share their life stories as a refugee, a student at Beetroot Academy, and finally, as a person working in tech. These stories will be personal portraits of people forced to rebuild their lives from the ground up.

More than ever, it is essential to help Ukrainian victims of war rebuild their lives. Tech is the fastest-growing industry in the world. It has already changed thousands of Ukrainian lives in the last ten years and could change thousands more.

Join our fundraising campaign — help those who now need it the most by helping them rebuild their lives with a career in tech.