It's all about development - how we train at Solwit

Written by: Justyna Cichocka, Employer Branding Specialist

In interviews, we often hear candidates mention DEVELOPMENT as their main reason for wanting to change jobs. It is usually crucial for a programmer or tester – not only in terms of learning new technologies and how to use novel tools but also in a non-technical career path. What are the development opportunities we offer at Solwit?

Solwit Development Academy

This is the first and most fundamental item on our list. The Solwit Development Academy is our in-house training program, which includes workshops, lightning talks, and other forms that support exploring new areas. Any member of #solwitteam can attend the organized meetings – there are no quarterly or annual ceilings. You also don’t have to be project-related to the training topic – nothing is stopping an automation tester from joining a Java workshop.

The issues are broad and tailored to current needs, and, most importantly, our people will run the meetings, which means the quality will be high. There is also the other side of the coin – #solwitteam members can lead training. It is already a challenge for more adventurous and experienced people, but not always – we value every voice who wishes to share its knowledge and experience. Whether it is an experienced trainer or someone who is just getting started but has valuable things to say, we treat everyone equally: we help promote the event, gather volunteers, and pay extra for leading the training. So we get a win-win. The trainers gain experience and coaching competence while working with a welcoming and engaged audience. We as a company are delighted to have individuals among us who are keen  on sharing their knowledge. Lightning talks are a helpful warm-up for beginning trainers before running a long workshop since they can share, for instance, how they solved a problem in a project. The format is much shorter than a typical meeting, making it ideal for practice.

All these activities share one goal – to develop our employees, not only within the technical career path. Out of a need for leadership development, we dedicate various training activities to our leaders and managers. Through this program, soft skills can get boosted, and the group’s everyday challenges get addressed. We strive to create a training plan for each quarter to foster mature teams and high-level leadership.

External training

As well as bringing in-house training opportunities, we also give access to what the market offers:

• English learning platforms, where you can polish your language skills at your convenience. Here, it’s also worth noting that all employees get invited to attend English Coffee Breaks, hosted by a professional lecturer, and include the discussion of various more or less relevant topics, but most importantly – all in English.
• Course and training portals and book resources – whenever needed, we put online and training courses in the hands of the #solwitteam. We are also keen on filling the #solwitteam library, the virtual one, as well as the stationary one.
• External training and certification is an area we are also looking to develop. We take great care to ensure that our testers can boast their knowledge of the standards program and ISTQB certification. But that’s not all, of course! Training and certification from our partner companies is an area that we also hand over to our employees. We are keen on ensuring that our testers can boast the accumulated knowledge of the standards program and an ISTQB certification at the Foundation or Advanced level. Thanks to our solid partnership with Google, we facilitate the certification and enhance their competencies in cloud services.

Would you like to see how our training programs work in the practice? Check out our careers tab and see who we are seeking.