S4J in cooperation with the National Agency for Employment and Skills and Elite Travel Group, partner company with vocational “Salih Çeka” school in Elbasan, the national coding competition among vocational schools in Albania. Students competed for a website development; a challenge launched by representatives of “Elite Travel Group”.

In October, the competition grand finale was organized in a webinar where participants presented their projects in front of a jury compound of: Mrs. Faola Hodaj, Director of Innovation at the Municipality of Tirana, Mr. Julian Demeti, Founder of the company “Albanian Business Partner”, Eldi Ndoni, Senior Web Developer at the company “Dokuzi” and DigiCom, and Mr. Andi Toçi from Elite Travel Group.

After some great presentations by students from Tirana, Elbasan, Durrës, Lezha and Vlora, the jury decided to increase the number of winners, who were:

• 1^st place: Mariano Baci (vocational “Beqir Çela” school in Durrës)
• 2^nd place: Ergin Dapaj, Kristi Seraj (industrial school “Pavaresia” in Vlora)
• 3^rd place: Klaudia Meha (vocational “Hermann Gmeiner” school in Tirana)
• 4^th place: Ersiljo Muço, Rigers Uliu, Kleidi Aliu (vocational “Beqir Çela” school in Durrës)
• 5^th place: Kejsi Rroshi, Klinti Xhebrahimi, Ledio Bushi (vocational “Hermann Gmeiner” school in Tirana)

Elite Travel Group offered internships for all participating students.

The programming competition is a good example how companies cooperating with S4J partner schools take the initiative and collaborate with different actors to stimulate students’ creativity and practical learning.