We want to share with you a complex and successful life story of two young employees of AzInTelecom LLC who did not have higher education, still acquired certificates from international information technology companies.

IT being a global field, obtaining certificates from large international companies is already an accomplishment. Completing such complex courses and achieving a successful result in the final exam requires a high level of knowledge and experience.

However, in Azerbaijan, two young people aged 22 and 23, having broken this axiom, were able to develop themselves even without higher and even full secondary education, gain knowledge in the field of information security, be awarded hard-to-earn international certificates, and work in a company that provides the most advanced technological products and services in the country.

Tural Asadov and Khazar Hajiyev with their successful life stories proved that higher education is not a priority for building a career and achieving big goals.

Khazar, aged 22, stopped education before finishing grade 7 and worked as a waiter and assistant operator. At the age of 16, he began to improve in the field of programming and independently gained knowledge of Linux and Python programming languages. Upon his return from military service in 2019, he took an external exam and received a certificate of completion for grade 9.

In 2020, Kaspar Hajiyev independently acquired knowledge in the field of networking, system administration, virtualization and cybersecurity. In the same year, he received a RedHat Linux international system administrator certificate.

He took part in the liberation of our lands from occupation as a conscript during the Second Karabakh War, and after being discharged from the army, in July-September 2021 he participated in an internship program on information security at AzInTelecom LLC.

One of the greatest achievements of this 22-year-old young man at the next and current stage is obtaining an OSCP certificate from the American international company Offensive Security. On May 7, 2022, K. Hajiyev completed a course on penetration testing in the field of information security and successfully passed the exam.

Tural Asadov, a 23-year-old with another international certificate, joined the army after graduating from secondary school and served as a sniper in 2019 as an overtime military serviceman.

Since he was in secondary school he independently acquired knowledge of web programming, cyberspace and the Linux operating system, which guided Tural in this direction after military service. In July-September 2021, Tural Asadov participated in an internship program on information security at AzInTelecom LLC.

As a continuation of his success, on May 9, 2022, he received the hard-to-earn eWPT certificate from the international company eLearnSecurity. T. Asadov successfully passed the exam, completing a course on penetration testing of web applications that was provided by the company and lasted several months.

Since October 2021, both young men have been working as specialists at the Cybersecurity Division of the Information Security Department of AzInTelecom LLC.

Personnel training and training of specialists in the field of information technology in Azerbaijan is constantly in the spotlight and the relevant authorities take necessary steps towards it. The Ministry of Digital Development and Transport is also implementing numerous support projects in this direction. Wihin the framework of "Technest" scholarship program of the Agency for Innovations and Digital Development of the Ministry as well as Cyber Security Laboratory Training Program of AzInTelecom nearly 1000 young people have already gained specific knowledge in the IT sphere and have gained an opportunity to work both in the bodies of the Ministry and in other leading companies and institutions of the country.

Although Tural Asadov and Khazar Hajiyev did not officially receive higher education, they proved that it is possible to achieve great success in both science and business as a result of their interest in their favorite field, determination to learn and hard work to realize their dreams.