Melkweg Amsterdam will help orient and retrain employees to a promising IT sector

In the four-week IT career program, participants gain experience in programming, cloud computing, data analysis, UX and digital marketing, from a specially designed online learning environment, where participants complete assignments and participate in workshops and interactive presentations. In addition, attention is also paid to peer-supported self-study in which participants learn to set up their own learning paths and to appropriate IT skills. Everything is ultimately aimed at having an ‘IT career development planning’ within a month, called ‘MyPathWay’. An environment in which participants match their talents and skills with the desired IT job, study and career plan.

“More or less coincidentally, I rolled into PathWays when the Melkweg offered its employees the route during the lockdown. Speakers from all corners of IT and hands-on exercises provided a glimpse into a still unknown world that became more and more concrete for me over the course of the process. The interaction with my class also provided a lot of inspiration. After PathWays I started working on Python and my first own version of ‘Snake’ is now a fact. Who would have thought! ”, Says Judith Katz, PathWays participant.

Sustainable career switch to IT

With a rising demand for digital services, the IT sector continues to require more and well-trained staff. This offers opportunities for retraining students. To make the most of those opportunities and make a sustainable career switch, a personal career path in IT is indispensable. “Choosing the right path often turns out to be difficult. Because where and how to start? From the experiments we went through in developing PathWays, we noticed that retraining and refresher courses experience various barriers in this. Regular career coaching often turns out to be insufficient. PathWays is a career orientation program to tech that shows the IT world from the inside out. Because how does the tech world really work? What specific skills do you really need? To find out, you have to get to know and acquire basic skills in tech together, and be helped on the right path by people from the tech world ”, says Floor Vink, Managing Director TekkieWorden.nl.

Continue to invest in people even in times of crisis

The program is an important investment in the employees, to which the Melkweg is happy to contribute. Perhaps participation in the program will lead to a better starting position in the labor market. In addition, it also offers participants valuable skills in their work in the Melkweg. “When I took office in the summer of 2020, I and my colleagues set myself the goal of not only surviving the crisis, but also emerging from it stronger. This training program is one of the important pillars of that ambition ”, says interim director Frans Vreeke.

About PathWays

PathWays is a career orientation program to IT that shows the IT world from within. PathWays is an initiative of TechConnect from the Amsterdam Economic Board, and actively linked to TekkieWorden, the Netherlands’ largest platform that stimulates learning and working in tech. The PathWays IT Career Planning Program partners with AWS, Salesforce, Linkedin, Techleap, Randstad, Rabobank, AG Connect and House of Skills.

About Melkweg

The Melkweg stands for pop culture in the broadest sense of the word. Hundreds of concerts, club nights, (music) films, theater performances, exhibitions and multidisciplinary events attract many visitors every year. In the Melkweg, established names stand next to new talent and emerging trends are given the opportunity to reach a wide audience. The diversity in programming and audience, in combination with the different spaces and the special location, make the Melkweg a unique place.