IVSZ education director Károly Bozsonyi said 7,258 students enrolled in IT programmes this year, speaking at a conference on IT education organised by IVSZ, the human resources ministry, the national development ministry and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

IVSZ chairman Tamás Laufer put the local shortage of IT professionals at over 30,000, up from 22,000 just two years earlier. He noted that IT professionals in Hungary now earn about the average their peers make in western Europe.

Deputy state secretary for education Zita Horváth said the government is working with businesses to boost the proportion of young Hungarians studying maths, as well as the technical and natural sciences.

A new scholarship programme for those studying IT will be introduced no later than September of next year, she added.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.