Empowering Digitally Skilled Youth to Build IT Careers Using Emerging Technologies

Digital technologies are playing an increasingly important role in public, economic and everyday life, particularly among younger people. Businesses and governmental authorities remain concerned about a digital skills gap, as many youngsters, especially girls, tend to be consumers rather than creators of technology.Following amendments to Bulgaria's Higher Education Act in 2016, secondary schools were given the opportunity to partner with higher education (HE) institutions allowing students in their final two years of study to receive training by university lecturers. Determined to tackle the shortage of applicants for its ICT programs, a challenge typical for academic entities in small and medium-sized cities, the University of Ruse (UR) signed a contract with a local high school, enabling the UR to train students in their final two years in 2 profiles, one of which focusing on IT.The present paper addresses the shortage of digitally skilled professionals and the declining interest of young people in ICT academic programs. It highlights some EU and national measures aiming to tackle these challenges. The activities conducted in the last 10 years by the Telecommunications Department at the UR to attract students to its ICT programs are presented, centred around the ‘Multimedia’ training of high school students. The paper outlines the findings of a survey involving 34 students and assessing their opinion with regard to emerging technologies such as 3D technologies, AI, virtual and augmented reality. The survey aimed to evaluate the students' interest and knowledge of these technologies, as well as their intentions to pursue further education in ICT university programs. Conclusions are made and recommendations for future work are proposed.