Graduate Entrepreneurship Training Through Information Technologies - HP GET-IT Website

HP EMEA’s Graduate Entrepreneurship Training through IT (GET-IT) programme has been expanding in recent months, with the launch of its new online GET-IT City portal and the announcement of plans for additional centres to be opened in the next two years.

Currently, there are 70 training centres based across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and fifteen of those are in Russia. ORT Russia is currently hosting six GET-IT centers. We spoke to Dr. Sergey Gorinskiy, Deputy Director of the World ORT Representative Office which hosts the GET-IT centres in Moscow to find out how effective the training is.

Q.  Can you tell us a bit about World ORT and the work that you do with HP EMEA?

SG. World ORT is an education and vocational training organisation with more than 100 years’ history that co-ordinates the work of professionals and volunteers in 58 countries. Through extensive fundraising, we support different schools and training programmes by developing high-tech educational systems and producing a variety of teaching aids and publications. ORT is active in more than 50 training centres in Russia and CIS countries.

We have worked with HP EMEA for several years, running different educational programmes including the Digital Community Centres (DCC) and the Micro-Enterprise Accelerations Programme (MAP).

Q.  Can you give us some background on the six centres that offer HP’s GET-IT technology?

SG. Five of our centres were installed with GET-IT technology in 2007 and the sixth was added this year. The centres vary in terms of the type of training that they provide.

The ORT Technology College in Moscow specialises in fashion design, economics, catering, merchandising and advertising. The advertising module was tailored as a distance learning project for disabled students.

We have a Vocational Training Boarding School for deaf people in Tula, which provides about 130 students with skills to train as metal workers, seamstresses and shoemakers. The GET-IT training is unique here as vocational training schools in Russia do not prepare deaf students for work on our modern, knowledge-based economy.

There are two training centres for women - in Tambov and Volgograd. The populations in both these areas are predominantly underemployed and ORT works with different organisations to help women earn more money by developing their own smalls businesses.

In St. Petersburg and Ekaterinburg we have two vocational training centres called ‘ORT-Career’. Although unemployment across Russia is low, the unemployment rates of young people worldwide is much higher. Consequently, the GET-IT programme in these centres focuses specifically on local youth and women’s organisations.

Q.  How many students have you registered to use GET-IT in your centres? Why type of educational background do they have?

SG. Up until July 2008 approximately 700 students have received GET-IT training. At the moment, the core GET-IT curriculum ‘T-Tools’ is used as a stand-alone course as well as being integrated into other training modules such as Technology, Entrepreneurship for Beginners and Business Planning.

Q.  How much has the provision of GET-IT in your centres helped to create awareness of the need for greater knowledge of IT and business in your area?

SG. ORT is not a typical provider of business education - we try to accommodate people of varied needs. We provide the GET-IT programme not from a business perspective, but as a part of philanthropic programme for underserved groups of the population. In fact, HP and ORT combined were the first organisation in Russia to address issues of ICT and business training for this particular audience. We call our version of GET-IT programme ‘Breaking Digital Divide’.

Although it’s probably still too early to tell as the GET-IT programme has only been running for just over a year, we can see that it is a real eye-opener for many people. Some of our students have said that, even though they had a computer, they did not understand how it was possible to use it for a small business. GET-IT shows them how.

Q. Can you give some examples of what students have to say about GET-IT?

SG. Alexey Anokhin and Alyona Shevchenko are both residents of the HP-ORT GET-IT Centre in Tambov. I asked Alyona how long she has been undertaking GET-IT training and she said: “I finished a Computer Literacy course in the middle of November last year and immediately signed up for the T-Tools course. I love pretending to be a businessman during the class!”

I also asked Alexey whether he thought the training would encourage him to start his own business. He said: “I believe I can say YES! I am on my own with nobody to support me. Working for somebody can make good money. But you can also make a career out of a business. My course teacher has taught me a lot about e-business and I’m really interested in this.“

Valery and Eugene Fokin are siblings and have both completed a vocational course at the HP-ORT centre in Tambov. Eugene had seen posters about the GET-IT courses and persuaded her brother to join her in starting a small business. They have taken the entire ‘ICT for businessmen’ course and spent their first income on a computer. Now they do all their accounting and develop their own advertising and presentations.

Q. What examples can you provide of how GET-IT City has helped students in your centres with their training?

SG. We have tried using GET-IT City but English is not our first language and we are waiting to put the Russian to full use!

We use the T-Tools curriculum and would like to see more modules dedicated to business, such as management and marketing. I also think that the levels of ICT courses could be more challenging. 

Q. How can you make sure that the centres are maximising the GET-IT programme as far as possible?

SG. We make a point of working closely with our centres to see that they can really use the technology to suit their different needs. For instance, last month we organised a seminar in Tula for GET-IT instructors to enable them to share their experiences in using T-Tools. I’m very impressed how enthusiastic the trainers are about GET-IT. After deep analysis we have decided to redesign T-Tools to adapt it for the real needs of our target groups.

We also visited the Vocational Training Boarding School for deaf students to meet them and see how they are progressing. It is really fantastic to see how the GET-IT programme  has changed the lives of these students. They can now work after school not just as metal turners, seamstresses or shoemakers but also as PC operators.

Q. What advice would you give to any NGOs who have only recently started to offer a GET-IT programme?

SG. We would advise them to choose their target groups carefully so that the programme can give maximum benefit to the students. We’d also advise them to work in conjunction with other NGOs, educational establishments and government agencies for business development. If students are to glean the most out of entrepreneurship courses, they need maximum input from all sides.

You can find the interview on HP website at

http://h41111.www4.hp.com/globalcitizenship/uk/en/bulletin/27/interview.html?jumpid=em_r11071_uk/en/smb/tsg/GCBulletinJanuary-em-ene-xx-/chev/