About Korça

Welcome to Korça, the next destination for development and technology in Albania.

Korça is a touristic city made of characteristic traditions in cuisine and culture. Technology makes it look beautiful for tourism and work, especially for the young generation.

Currently, many youngsters in Korça work as freelancers, meanwhile, the first companies related to social media managing, design, and programming have been created.

Korça is a home for Upshift, Digital Weekend, and iKorça Hackathon, AgriChallenge.

Korça’s municipality plays a big role in the establishment of innovations and education in the city.

-“We have chosen information technology because those who specialize in this field can work from their offices in the local and global market, without needing to move to other cities or migrate.”,- emphasizes the city’s mayor, Sotiraq Filo.

The primary objective of the municipality is the employment of youth, without leaving the city of Korça. The municipality’s program provides the following:

Training programs for youth in social media, digital marketing, e-commerce

The training in coding and programming is expected to start soon. The municipality of Korça is developing a project with the EU for Innovation and it aims to make the program ambitious in terms of numbers. 

Encouragement of the companies to create their branches in Korça

For this purpose, the municipality is building the Center for Technology Development.

The center will serve as an innovative space for students, startups, and businesses.

Korca is growing steadily and there are a lot of things to offer.

Just Tap in the Korça ecosystem and explore more!

The companies are offered a supporting package that begins with: trained labor force, accommodation opportunities in many areas at the center of Korça, and other initiatives that could be discussed with these companies. 

- Preparing the labor force. Further mentoring.

- Low-cost work environments.

- Facilities in local taxes.

- Supporting opportunities through the National Employment Service program. Through this program, the employee gets paid for a certain period of time by the government. 

If you would like to contribute to this page, please contact us via email [email protected].
For any other questions related to AlbaniaTech please contact us.

Useful information

Ecosystem Overview

Co-working Spaces and Hubs

The youth center in Korça is a reconstruction project of an existing space, adapting it to the new program. The project completely opens the first floor, creating a flexible space for various activities, creates a small service space and utility area. On the second floor are the library and co-working spaces. The openings in the facades are opened to the maximum allowed by the construction system to fill the environment with light. Perforated metallic panels create a filter between the public space and the facade. Public space allows access to persons with disabilities. 

Communities 

AgriChallenge Hackathon

Events and Programs

Korça Digital Weekend

Upshift Korça

Education

Statistical indicators on educational infrastructure provide a diverse overview of educational institutions of all categories. Thus for ease of analysis institutions, education is treated according to the following groups: Institutions of preschool education, education basic, secondary education, and higher education. 

It is worth noting that only the Kolonjë area has more basic education students in urban areas and a larger number few in rural areas, compared to other areas where the situation is reversed. A general and cross-sectional presentation of information on educational infrastructure leads to the conclusion that:

  • The number of educational institutions fluctuates depending on the change in the total population
  • The age structure of the population also plays an important role in the trend of educational potential
  • Migration and emigration, both short-term, play a role in the performance of the number and the efficiency obtained

Only Fan S. Noli University currently operates in the entire region, which

serves as a center of gravity not only for the region but also beyond. The University of Korça maintains connections and cooperates with many teaching and scientific institutions within and abroad. Relations with the universities can be distinguished: "Aristotle" and "Macedonia" of Greece"

West of England University Of the United Kingdom, the Universities of Angier and of Montpelliese in France, "University of Nebraska" USA, and with that of the Monastery in Macedonia.

Access to Talents

Below you can find some great easy-to-use sites for job seeking:

Digitalization and Innovation

UPSHIFT “Social Impact Workshop” in Korça
UNICEF Albania in collaboration with ICTSlab has implementing UPSHIFT program, that aims to empower the most vulnerable young people (15-24 years old) to identify challenges in their communities and create entrepreneurial solutions to address them.

UPSHIFT can be adapted to different contexts ranging from youth innovation labs to schools and non-formal education centers. Through a combination of Outreach & Inspiration, human-centered Design workshops, Mentorship & Coaching, and in some cases seed funding, participants gain valuable transferable skills, including problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and leadership.

Currently, young people from the rural areas in North, South East of Albania, and Tirana took part in a 3 days training program, mentored by energetic youth mentors. After being equipped with skills they started implementing their innovative social ideas with the goal to enhance their community life. Business communities and local government-supported financially the youth-designed ideas adding to the ownership and sustainability of the project.  To guarantee program sustainability the successful UPSHIFT curricula that are in the process of accreditation by the MOESY and, schoolteacher will be trained on how to implement it with the adolescents.

UPSHIFT plans include digital upshift, inclusion in curricula, stronger partnership with businesses as well as a closer partnership with other youth Programmes such as Erasmus+, EU for Innovation, etc.

On 6 of August 2021 with a warm welcoming from the municipality of Korça, was held UpShift Korça 2.0 who brought together students, teachers, mentors, and supporters that made the project simple and productive. From the success of this project Kushtrim Shala, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Uplift Albania, expressed that many other projects are expected with the same levels of success. 

Regional Start-up Ecosystem Development – Training in Korça
Between the 16th to 19th July 2020, the ‘EU for Innovation’ programme implemented by GIZ and Sida, jointly the with Municipality of Korça conducted a series of awareness raising sessions and workshops revolving around ICT entrepreneurship and skills for students, aspiring entrepreneurs and Start-ups.

16th July 2020: Awareness Raising Session – Freelancing and future of work

17th July 2020: Awareness Raising Session – How to become an entrepreneur?

18th July 2020: ICT Skills Workshop – Marketing, Content Development and Social Media Management

19th July 2020: ICT Skills Workshop – UX/ Web Design & Development

This is a first initiative in transforming Korça in an ICT Start-up hub and will be followed by more programmes and initiatives in the following year seeking to support students, aspiring entrepreneurs and Start-ups in the ICT field.

“AgriChallenge” – Youth for the digitalization of agriculture
AgriChallenge is a competition organized by Sustainable Rural Development in Albania (SRD), which is  implemented in Albania by GIZ in cooperation with the Albanian Ministry of Agriculture and Rrural  Development and the Municipality of Korça, and financed by the German Government (German Federal  Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development). 
The main goal of this program is to promote entrepreneurship skills among young people in the context  of improving agriculture and agro-tourism in the Korça region. AgriChallenge begins as a series of events  and educational activities, consisting of various workshops, bootcamps which are finalized with the  Hackathone under “AgriChallenge”, to support diversified income prospects in agritourism, agribusiness  and improve competition in the agricultural sector. 
In the framework of the launch of this project, the first information session will be held on October 8th 2021 to invite all  interested young people passionate about innovation, farmers in the Korça region, students of  Informatics, Agribusiness, Agrotourism and interested mentors or sponsors.