“There is no other school like it in Poland — we’ll be teaching university-level programming in high school,” says Mateusz Kozłowski, Founder and CEO of the Niepubliczne Technikum Programistyczne, or just “Techni Schools” for short.
Mateusz is also a Founding Partner of Techni Ventures, the firm co-launching the initiative, and holds BS and MS degrees in Computer Science. A serial entrepreneur, Mateusz noticed that the high school-to-college pipeline simply wasn’t keeping up with the realities of the job market, especially for future programmers.
“Right now in Poland, a high school freshman who knows they want to be a programmer will spend 8 years in classrooms before getting their first hands-on experience at a tech company. With the pace of digital change these days, that simply doesn’t make sense,” says Mateusz.
“Our mission is two-fold,” he adds. “We’re focusing on providing an elite programming education that will include all the other required high school subjects, but with an additional emphasis on mathematics, practical skill development, and real-world experience via internships.”
In this way, Techni School graduates can skip college and immediately jump ahead into the job market. At the same time, if a student does choose to go to college, the option will still be available — all Techni School graduates will be required to pass the matura, Poland’s national high school exit exams.
A few big names in tech have already signed on as Program Partners to offer internships during the students’ second year (of five total years), including Microsoft, as well as top local startups SentiOne, PlumResearch, CyberSkiller, DevSkiller, and YouNeedIT.
“Students these days should have completely new development opportunities,” says Łukasz Jeziorski, PlumResearch’s CEO & Founder. “We’re looking forward to working with students and showing them these possibilities.”
The first Techni School (of many planned) is opening this fall in Warsaw in a brand new facility for an inaugural class of thirty-two, and enrollment is currently underway. The application process includes an hour-long online exam.
“The ideal student is someone who is interested in coding, how apps work, how games are being built, and how games function. They don’t need to have any programming skills yet,” explains Mateusz.
Techni School’s board includes entrepreneurs, industry professionals, and university professors, all with a vested interest to see the next generation get a head start, including Mariusz Łobejko, Co-founder & CTO of Bambino; Paweł Czech, Founder of Nex.D; and Cristobal Alonso, CEO of Startup Wise Guys.
Because of COVID-19, the first Techni School “will be ready to start fully remote for the fall if it’s necessary,” adds Mateusz. “We’re able to not only offer all the content online, but we also have an innovative digital learning platform ready to roll out if needed.”
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For more information about Techni Schools, please visit www.technischools.com or send an email to [email protected].
