A unique opportunity to acquire a unique combination of skills: IT and business
Co-founder and board member of Green Fox Academy, Péter Langmár and pro-rector of IBS, László Szepesi talk about a new cooperation of IBS and Green Fox Academy
Tell a little bit about Green Fox. How long have you been working?
Péter Langmár: Green Fox Budapest and Prague have been teaching people with very different professional and personal backgrounds to code from scratch and help them find a job in IT since 2015. We were the first bootcamp in Hungary to offer super intensive programming courses, and by now, we have both part-time and online options. Our goal is to create an environment similar to the one our students will find themselves when they start working. So our teaching methodology focuses on facing and resolving challenges with the help of mentors.
What is your mission? Who are your colleagues, which fields of professional life do they come from?
P. L.: There are software developers and psychologists among our mentors, and a big team is working behind them in the background to achieve our mission: building the best educational and talent sourcing institute in CEE by providing for those who are seeking new career paths, future proof tech, and soft skills. We love our job because we have an impact on people’s life.
Did your mission go through some changes during the last couple of years?
P. L.: Five years is a long period in the life of a new business, so naturally, in terms of methodology and models we changed, but our aim has been the same ever since our foundation.
Do you generally cooperate with other companies, institutions? Can you give some examples?
P. L.: Green Fox has always taught employable skills and technologies, based on the insights of our 90+ corporate partners, including technology startups and multinational companies and SMEs. First of all, Green Fox supports our graduates’ job hunt via our partners. Moreover, we conduct specially designed educational programs, we did it for Evosoft, EPAM and Lufthansa, among others. We always want to find the right partner for a specific program, to give an example, in case of Academy4MoMs we work together with Blue Elephants Nursery.
What do you expect from the cooperation with IBS?
P. L.: On the one hand, university and bootcamp style education have different advantages, and this joint educational program merges the best of them for our students. On the other hand, we can truly merge business and IT studies by each partner focusing on their fields of expertise. This is a unique learning experience, both for the participants and for the institutions.
What is the novelty of MSc in IT for Business Data Analytics programme?
László Szepesi: It is the first programme in the region to combine a sound academic business content with the skills development most commonly associated with Coding Camps.
What are the specific elements of the program and how is it structured?
L. Sz.: Students will, on one hand, learn the generic foundations of business, and acquire some specialist skills in accounting, finance, and marketing. At the same time, they’ll learn the basics of coding, the fundamentals of application development and they’ll acquire the programming skills necessary to develop simple applications.
What kind of previous gaps can this program fill?
L. Sz.: Graduates will be uniquely qualified, possessing both the business analysis skills and the IT (coding) skills to produce the necessary data for the business analysis. This dual skills set, business AND coding, is absolutely needed today.
Why is it especially important today, in the present situation and in the foreseeable future?
L. Sz.: Dealing with data has become a fundamental aspect of every business decision. While the upcoming crisis might slow down the world economy, the trends remain unchanged, and that means that business data analysis will continue to be a dynamically growing area.
Whom would you recommend to study in the program?
L. Sz.: We are looking forward to welcoming everyone. You can be young or old, it doesn’t matter: you only need to be receptive to new ideas. Your gender doesn’t count either, there are ever more female analysts and IT specialists. You can have a business or an IT background, it doesn’t make a difference, we can bring new skills and knowledge in every case.
Who will be the tutors?
L. Sz.: Carefully selected IBS tutors will be delivering the programme. Some of them will be recommended by our partner, Green Fox Academy.
What do you expect from the cooperation with Green Fox Academy?
L. Sz.: Combining the skills and knowledge of a rigorous and well-respected business school with the freshness and innovation of a coding academy will provide our students a unique opportunity, something that doesn’t really exist elsewhere. We hope that this cooperation will bring new ideas and new products that will benefit all our stakeholders.
What does IBS expect from this program?
L. Sz.: We can expand our programme portfolio and offer our students the opportunity to acquire a unique combination of skills.
