103 new kood/Jõhvi graduates start their careers in the IT sector

On Friday, August 29, the kood/Jõhvi celebrated the official graduation of its third and fourth batches – 103 new software developers are entering the job market. This year’s graduates have an average age of 31, and 24% of them are women.

“Our success metric is the number of kood/Jõhvi students and graduates who secure jobs in their field, and this year, there are already well over 100. I wish the fresh graduates a high-flying start to their new careers,” said kood/Jõhvi CEO Lauri Haav. He added that salaries for development roles remain high in the market. “According to the latest data from Statistics Estonia, the highest average salary in the second quarter of this year was in the information and communication sector – €3,704 – confirming that this is still a great field in which to build a career.”

“IT education is practical and powerful – it provides skills that are needed everywhere, from business to public services,” said Jõhvi municipality mayor Maris Toomel. Graduates are always welcome to return to Jõhvi, where the knowledge they’ve gained can help drive innovation and develop the region further. “kood/Jõhvi brings together smart and ambitious young people, and our community offers opportunities to continue building new technological solutions here even after graduation.”

Most kood/Jõhvi graduates have started working as software developers and engineers. The largest employers of graduates include tech companies such as Pipedrive, LHV, Playtech, as well as the state IT organization SMIT.

Third batch graduate Lukas Haavel has been working for almost a year in the Insly development team, contributing to the creation of AI solutions. According to him, the practical, project-based learning is what prepared him best for the job and what he has been praised for. “When someone comes to me with a project or a problem, I can thoroughly think through how to create a real solution for it,” he added. Lukas was a musician before starting coding, but now he enjoys his work in tech.

This year’s fourth-batch graduate, Katriin Sartakov, has been working for four months as a QA specialist at Erply, where she is involved in both automation and manual testing. “At kood/Jõhvi, students test projects created by other students, and QA is essentially testing different applications. For automation, we use a programming language that I also learned at school, so I apply what I learned there almost every day.” Katriin decided to study at kood/Jõhvi because it seemed like an exciting and challenging opportunity. “I had heard that getting in was difficult and that graduates were successful, so I wanted to give it a try myself.”

The first //kood programming school kood/Jõhvi was founded in Estonia in 2021 with the goal of making technology education accessible to everyone. This September, in collaboration with local municipalities, development centers, and other partners, new locations will be opened in Võru and Paide.

The program is based on practical self-directed and group learning and lasts 12–18 months. It covers both front-end and back-end software development, problem-solving, and teamwork. In the final phase, learners can specialize in areas such as cybersecurity, mobile applications, or artificial intelligence.

So far, //kood has admitted six batches in Estonia, totaling 1,100 learners. Four batches, more than 300 people, have completed the program. Nearly two-thirds of the graduates are now working in the technology sector. Among the learners, there are representatives of over 30 nationalities, the average age is 28 years, and 16% of the learners are women.