As part of their different support activities towards Ukraine it was important for the team of CARIAD Estonia to contribute to both a humanitarian cause and enhancing opportunities for tech education and innovation at the same time. „This also matches with the values we uphold and represent on a daily basis at CARIAD. We have an ambitious goal to transform the future of mobility, and we can only do this with a team of talents aspiring to join this mission,“ says Nicolas Derbin, Managing Director of CARIAD Estonia.

What inspired CARIAD Estonia to support Ukrainian students via the Tallinn University of Technology Development Fund?

The overwhelming support efforts of Estonians, organisations, businesses and private persons has been a true inspiration. Seeing a small nation come together has set the bar high for everyone in the world. While Volkswagen Group and CARIAD launched their initiatives we decided quite early on that we also need to do something locally, to give our part as a member of this community welcoming so many refugees and contributing on every level. We involved our entire small team to brainstorm different options and as a result we concluded that we should support multiple causes. In addition to supporting the humanitarian efforts via Estonian Refugee Council, we also wanted to kick-start something with a more long-term effect. By supporting tech education and innovation via kood/Jõhvi and TalTech we hope to give Ukrainians means to shape a better future for them and everyone else their work will influence. We recognise the achievements of TalTech as the leading tech university in Estonia and we hope this is a first step towards other collaborations.

What would you recommend to other companies considering how to also give their part?

Most likely every company identifies the causes to support on the basis of their focus, values and aspirations. From what I have seen, there is a lot to learn from every business active on this front. On the basis of our experience I truly recommend involving employees in the discussion and reaching a choice that makes your entire team proud. Enhancing learning always pays off.

Any words of encouragement to the talents aspiring for scholarship from this fund?

We are truly glad if our support can help as many as possible to focus more on their studies. The world is waiting for talents like you!

To help young talent from Ukraine, you can make a donations to the Tallinn University of Technology Foundation by clicking on the link. Or by making a bank transfer to donation accounts at SEB Pank (a/a EE471010052027905003) or Swedbank (a/a EE572200221011286139).

CARIAD Estonia is an international hub of CARIAD, the automotive software company with a mission to build a unified software platform across all brands of the Volkswagen Group. More than 40 million Group vehicles are expected to run on the digital CARIAD platforms as early as 2030. CARIAD currently employs 5000 engineers and developers around the world. As of this year CARIAD in Estonia is building up step by step its tech team in Tallinn that will be an integral part of the global Digital Business and Mobility Services team of CARIAD.
CARIAD Estonia is currently looking for Operations Engineers as well as DevOps Engineers (Site Reliability) to be based in the CARIAD Tallinn Tech hub. Find out more link.