Baku, March 9, AZERTAC A meeting has been organized at the Innovation Agency under Azerbaijan`s Ministry of Digital Development and Transport with a group of talented students of the Ministry’s Technest Scholarship Programme.Presenting more than 20 innovative ideas and projects, the students successfully presented their innovative and entrepreneurial mindset before the guests.Minister of Digital Development and Transport Rashad Nabiyev highly appreciated the students’ presentations and wished them success in their future endeavors.“We are pleased with the success of these young people who have chosen a future career path with the support of the Technest Scholarship Programme. Today, our young people are at the beginning of the path to education, knowledge and sustainable development.I believe that Technest will play an important role in the formation of a smart generation by becoming a national brand. The results of this year’s programme are very encouraging. Fifty of our students who completed a number of ICT courses have already been employed in various institutions. In a short time, this is a very high result,” Rashad Nabiyev said.It was noted at the meeting that the peculiarity of the Technest programme is that high school students, in addition to studying at school, can significantly develop their knowledge and skills in new professions required by the digital world. Students are trained not only as users of advanced ICT programmes, but also as their creators. During the meeting, which continued in an interesting discussion atmosphere, students’ opinions and suggestions on the Technest programme were listened to.The programme was launched in 2021 at the initiative of the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport. The purpose of the Technest Scholarship Programme is to accelerate the training of national IT professionals, to overcome the existing shortcomings in this area and to contribute to the digital development in the country. Under the programme, 120 schoolchildren, 618 students and graduates study in various areas such as cloud solutions, cloud administration, large databases, cybersecurity, automation, electronics, various programming languages, UI / UX design.One of the main tasks ahead in 2022 is to train and employ Technest scholarship holders as leading specialists. In addition to the educational project Code and More, created in this direction by the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport together with the “Whelp” startup through a public-private partnership and Ministry’s ICT Applying and Training Center, the Ministry works closely with Code Academy, the Israel-Azerbaijan Training Centre, Tech Academy, IBA Tech Academy and the Innovation Center, which organize professional courses in ICT in the country.