Lithuanian youth from the USA and Canada discover career opportunities in Lithuania
This year, the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation has provided funding for the Lithuanian-American Community’s long-running Lithuanian International Student Services (LISS) program to help talented foreign Lithuanians from the US and Canada discover career opportunities in Lithuania. This year, 27 diaspora representatives took part in the program.
“We see the benefits of this program – it gives young foreign Lithuanian talents the opportunity to discover modern Lithuania. Some of them later choose to build their future here, which is why this year we have allocated funding to introduce young people from the diaspora to our country’s advanced economy and innovative businesses creating globally competitive solutions: from companies developing artificial intelligence and IoT solutions to space start-ups,” said Aušrinė Armonaitė, Minister of the Economy and Innovation.
LISS participants spent five weeks training in Lithuania according to their field of study this year. They also had the opportunity to learn about Lithuania’s advanced economy. The participants visited high-tech companies as well as science and technology centres, held discussions with business and science representatives creating high added value and learned about career opportunities.
This year, they visited companies such as Teltonika IoT Group and Sensmetry and interacted with Space Hub LT, the group responsible for developing the country’s space ecosystem. The interns also got acquainted with Lithuanian cultural life and national traditions and improved their knowledge of the Lithuanian language.
One of this year’s participants, Kamilė Makselytė, a member of the Lithuanian community in New Jersey who is studying computer science at the famous Yale University, was glad to have the opportunity to gain practical skills during the internship. She trained at a multinational information technology (IT) company in Lithuania and contributed to the development of IT projects.
“I’ve only completed the first year, so I don’t have a lot of practical skills in my profession yet. I wanted to see what it’s like to work in this field. During my internship, I had the opportunity not only to see, but also to work with the latest technologies. It was very useful to learn about the world of programming and its different areas in detail as it allowed me to discover what I like best and what I should focus on in the future,” said K. Makselytė, a student at Yale University.
Internships in innovative companies and organisations not only give participants the opportunity to gain practical skills, but also help them make connections that will be useful for their future career in Lithuania. One of this year’s participants, Marko Predrag Kostic, who is studying computer science at the College of DuPage, not only studied the application of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology during his internship at a Lithuanian IT company, but also continued his cooperation with the company after the internship.
“During my internship at a Lithuanian IT company, I had the opportunity to participate in the development of a lighting app. It integrates IoT and offers specific lighting based on various factors such as daylight intensity, etc. Together with two other members of the LISS program, we developed IoT models that analyse different data and generate optimal lighting conditions. This project requires more time than we had in Lithuania, so our project leaders offered to continue the collaboration remotely from the US until the app is fully developed, tested and ready for use,” says M. P. Kostic.
The young Lithuanian talent from the US said that the internship provided a wide range of experience, both in project management and teamwork skills in developing innovative solutions, as well as practical knowledge related to the application of advanced technologies such as IoT. M. P. Kostic also enjoyed the opportunity to improve his knowledge of the Lithuanian language and to make friends with other participants.
“The LISS program provided the opportunity to work with experienced mentors and network with other students. As the internship was in Lithuanian, I had the opportunity to improve my Lithuanian language skills. During the internship, I also realised that AI is an area in which I want to develop my knowledge further,” says the Lithuanian diaspora member from the US.
This year, the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation also funded the Bring Together Lithuania internship program, in which 22 diaspora representatives from the USA, Canada, Argentina, the Czech Republic, and the UK participated.
More information on the LISS internship program can be found here.