University of Tartu Narva College and Swedbank cooperate to support IT and entrepreneurship in Ida-Viru County

University of Tartu Narva College and Swedbank have concluded a cooperation agreement to support the development of IT and entrepreneurship in Ida-Viru County. Within the cooperation, experts from Swedbank will be involved in teaching the curricula “Entrepreneurship and Digital Solutions” and “Information Technology Systems Development” of Narva College.

In the form of lectures, seminars, traineeship and other teaching activities, experts will share their practical experience in business situations and projects as well as information systems development with students of Narva College. In addition, representatives of Swedbank will take part in the development work of the college and the programme councils of the mentioned curricula.

“For Swedbank, it is important that the existing good cooperation continues. As a bank, we are a part of the blood circulation of society, so we must contribute to the development of Estonia as a whole. This is why one of our goals is to create traineeship opportunities and jobs in regions. Moreover, as for many systems-dependent enterprises, the wellbeing of Swedbank also builds upon how successfully and smartly its systems and digital solutions have been set up. We can see that cooperation with Narva college can surely help us achieve that goal. By continuous cooperation, innovation can find its way to enterprises,” said Swedbank’s Head of Human Resources Ülle Matt.

According to Ingrid Vetka, the Director of Academic Affairs of University of Tartu Narva College, involving practitioners in teaching is a priority of the college. “Throughout the years, Swedbank has remained among the most attractive employers in Estonia and as a large enterprise, they have lots of valuable experience to share,” said Vetka.

She emphasises that maintaining cooperation is a challenge in itself. “Initiating and creating cooperation agreements is one thing. It is much more complicated to keep this cooperation going so that both the university and the enterprise would continue to be interested and willing to maintain that kind of partnership. Fortunately, we have plenty of ideas how Narva College can move on in cooperation with Swedbank,” Vetka added.

Narva College is a regional unit of the University of Tartu, created to support the development of Ida-Viru County and offer the people in the region opportunities for top-level self-development.

Further information:
Ingrid Vetka, Director of Academic Affairs of University of Tartu Narva College, 740 1903, ingrid.vetka@ut.ee
Ülle Matt,  Head of Human Resources of Swedbank, ulle.matt@swedbank.ee