Today Yerevan State University and Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company Armenia have signed a memorandum of cooperation, which is aimed at development of IT industry and corresponding skills among the youth through establishment of re-training and development platform Coca-Cola Video Games Lab YSU.

Acting rector of YSU Gegham Gevorgyan has commented on the platform, noting that it will be launched this year and be open to students of other universities as well.

 “Thanks to the platform, talented students will be able to develop their skills in the video games market. They need additional skills in various specialties for that, we their universities teach insufficiently or do not teach at all. Coca-Cola Hellenic Armenia will help us in this regard,” he said.

According to Gegham Gevorgyan, young people will obtain in-depth knowledge for all specialties that are needed for creating video games.

“As a large employer, our company considers it a mission to facilitate development of education system in Armenia. Cooperation with one of Armenia’s best universities, the YSU, is very important for us. We consistently support young people in development of their skills as part of the vision of having top-class labor force in the future,” said Coca-Cola Hellenic Armenia Country Manager Arthur Sahakyan.

He has noted that the management of the company, local and foreign mentors, and YSU faculty will be involved in the work of the new platform.

Coca-Cola Hellenic Armenia’s Marketing Director Yesayi Melik-Yolchyan has stated that the platform will not charge a fee.

“We firmly believe that Armenia and Armenian youth have a big potential in video game creation, because it requires not only technological knowledge, but also creativity and entrepreneurial skills. With this platform, we will enable young people to realize their ideas.

Free courses will be held for three months, after which groups of students will be able to realize their ideas through an incubator program. It will last for 6 months, during which mentors will guide the teams through an accelerator. In the end, we will support them and help establish ties for further development. The vision of this project is to take startups from the moment of creation and make them into entrepreneurs creating video games,” said Melik-Yolchyan.

“As a company with social corporate responsibility, we find it very important that our platform gives young people the knowledge they will use for advancing their careers, creating bigger teams, and entering into the global market. I would like to highlight that our company has re-trained over half a million young people worldwide in the framework of social corporate responsibility efforts,” added Elina Markaryan, Director for Public Affairs and Communications at Coca-Cola Hellenic Armenia.