Name: Ivan Prymachenko

Age: 26

Education: historian, Taras Shevchenko National University

Company: Prometheus

Did you know? His motto is “Don’t talk about the future – try to shape it.”

In 2014, Ivan Prymachenko, a fan of internet courses, decided to help Ukrainians jump on the bandwagon of online education. With a partner, Oleksii Molchanovskyi, Prymachenko founded a nonprofit called Prometheus to open up to Ukrainians the possibility of obtaining a free education from country’s best professors – completely for free.

Prymachenko believes this is the first step towards rebuilding Ukraine’s education system, which will transform the nation.

“Our final goal is to change Ukrainian education,” Prymachenko told the Kyiv Post. “Everything that’s done in the economy, politics, and society at the end is multiplied by the quality of education of those who have it.”

Since 2014, from being a platform with just four courses, Prometheus has developed into a nationwide online university with 45 subjects now available. On completing courses, students obtain certificates signed by the best lecturers from the most prominent Ukrainian universities, including Kyiv Polytechnic University, Taras Shevchenko National University, the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, and the Ukrainian Catholic University.

A typical online course consists of video lectures, interactive tasks, an online forum in which teachers or other classmates can answer questions, and final exams. Prometheus is similar in form to internet platforms such as Coursera, edX, Udacity or Khan Academy, but in Ukrainian.

Prymachenko and his colleagues have also launched four chains of courses in related subjects. The approach is a revolutionary one in education, according to Prymachenko.

“In order to modernize the country, we need to modernize education,” he said. “Our final goal is to reform Ukrainian education with blended learning. Hence we aim to integrate the Prometheus online courses into universities’ and schools’ curricula.”

The co-founders invested $5,000. The main sources of funding are grants, donations and the sale of certificates. A verified certificate as a tester of software, for example, costs Hr 500.

Prometheus has about 300,000 active users.

Prymachenko’s opinions are regularly published in major news organizations. “It’s important to not just do your job in some narrow niches, but constantly think about the way this work is related to the country as a whole, and how it correlates with the vision of the country in which we want to live.”