What is AQUIT?

AQUIT is a co-operation project between the Steinbeis Foundation Germany (a worldwide operating know-how and technology transfer innovation service enterprise with more than 4,000 employees in more than 600 transfer centers in more than 40 countries) and the German organization DEG (Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH, member of KfW Banking Group, one of the largest European development finance institutions) addressing the issue of „Ausbildung und Qualifizierung von IT-Arbeitskräften in Serbien – Qualification and certification of potential Serbian IT-experts “.

Main components of AQUIT are:

• AQUIT Infrastructure
• AQUIT Courses
• AQUIT Roaster of Certified IT experts
• AQUIT (Pilot) Projects

In the first phase of the project (August 2003 – July 2004) the basis of AQUIT infrastructure has been built by Steinbeis with the help and support of the universities in Serbia (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis, Kragujevac, Subotica and Zrenjanin). Involvement of Montenegro is planned for the final stages of the project.

AQUIT Courses cover three basic levels: Level I - Steinbeis Basics, Level II - General IT Skills and Tools, Level III - Special IT Skills and Tools for specific Applications. The first level prepares Serbian AQUIT trainees for the work at German/EU IT market.

The second level prepares the trainees for the tasks related to the basic IT technologies (e.g. Internet technologies, Java, C++, etc.) while the third one matches the specific needs of the work in AQUIT (pilot) projects. By June 2005 more than 25 courses have been prepared and more than 50 instances of these courses organized.

In parallel, AQUIT has registered 300+ AQUIT IT Experts from Serbia, 100+ of them certified and approximately 250+ yet to be certified until the end of the project. These data are stored in AQUIT Roaster (Database) of certified IT Experts. The certificates are provided by the state accredited Steinbeis University Berlin.

AQUIT (pilot) projects are the “benchmark” of the AQUIT initiative, linking German partners with outsourced IT experts in Serbia by means of the AQUIT Infrastructure. Single projects are already running as commercial contracts or being currently negotiated in the areas of:

• E-banking
• Medical applications
• GIS systems
• Aerospace industry (CAD)
• Mechanical engineering

If interested in obtaining more information or interested in the possibilities of using AQUIT Infrastructure and/or AQUIT IT Experts for the needs of your own projects please contact: