At WordCamp Europe 2026, Ivana Ćirković joined the Jukebox Podcast to talk about WP Credits — a new initiative from the WordPress Foundation that links universities, students, and businesses through real-world contribution-based learning. Ivana, a digital marketer with 18 years’ experience who leads marketing at WPBakery and routinely speaks at WordCamps, shared her experience as a mentor and why she believes WP Credits can reshape how young people enter the WordPress ecosystem.
What WP Credits is and why it matters
WP Credits was launched late in the previous year to bring younger contributors into the WordPress community by connecting universities with hands-on contribution projects. Rather than being a purely theoretical course, the program has students contribute to real WordPress work — translations, documentation, plugin review, core tasks, and other teams. Students are graded and earn certifications that are publicly visible on their wordpress.org profiles, helping them build marketable portfolios and stand out to employers.
Ivana explains that this initiative serves three interlocking goals: strengthen the WordPress community with fresh contributors, help universities modernize curricula, and give businesses a pipeline of better-prepared entry-level talent.
Ivana’s role and motivation
Education has been a throughline in Ivana’s career. She teaches digital literacy locally in Serbia and mentors students in the WP Credits program. WPBakery sponsors her involvement, but Ivana describes the mentoring role as both natural and rewarding — an opportunity to help newcomers learn how contribution works and to inspire them to explore the ecosystem.
How the program benefits students
Students join WP Credits to gain relevant, up-to-date experience that university programs often don’t teach. The program teaches remote collaboration, contribution workflows, and practical skills they can reference publicly. Each contribution is recorded on wordpress.org, so students build a visible trace of real work — not just a line on a CV.
Contributions are structured and meaningful. For example, students choosing translation work must achieve an approved minimum (Ivana mentions a baseline of 150 approved strings, which might translate to many more total strings worked on to meet that standard). That kind of measurable output demonstrates genuine capability.
Students pick a single contribution track aligned with their studies and interests — marketing students might join Polyglots, IT students might focus on core or plugins — and stick with it through the program. Weekly mentorship, deliverables, and blog posts are required, building both skill and an online presence. The flexibility of remote work lets participants contribute around their schedules while still meeting deadlines.
How universities participate
Universities work with the WordPress Foundation to map WP Credits to their curriculum. The program gives institutions a way to offer modern, industry-aligned coursework that appeals to prospective students and improves outcomes for current ones. Successful participants raise the university’s profile with future applicants by demonstrating that its graduates gain hands-on, industry-relevant experience.
How businesses can get involved and why they should
Ivana emphasizes that businesses have more to gain than simply donating products. The biggest value is in providing mentors and engaging directly with students. Agencies and companies can observe student contributions to identify promising hires, reducing onboarding time and cost. Students who complete WP Credits are already familiar with remote collaboration tools, Slack, and community workflows, which shortens the learning curve for employers.
At the moment WP Credits is still young — only a first generation of students has completed the program — so a formalized “plug-and-play” onboarding package for businesses is still in development. Ivana and others are actively exploring how to make involvement straightforward for agencies of all sizes.
Mentorship, accountability, and program structure
Mentors handle weekly check-ins (one-to-one or group meetings depending on cohort size) and async support via Slack. Mentors review progress, clear blockers, and help students navigate wordpress.org and project teams. Students also keep a weekly blog to reflect on their learning and build an online persona.
Accountability is built into the program. Regular attendance and engagement are required, and repeated no-shows (three missed mentor calls or repeated non-responsiveness) lead to removal from the cohort. This rule helps ensure participating students are committed and produces reliable outcomes for universities and businesses alike.
International cohorts and unexpected benefits
A strength of WP Credits is that cohorts are internationally mixed: students from multiple universities and countries work together. That exposes participants to distributed teamwork and diverse perspectives and often leads to unexpected collaborations and longer-term connections. Ivana describes being inspired by students and values the mutual learning that happens in these sessions.
Challenges and future hopes
The biggest near-term challenge is attracting younger contributors. The WordPress community’s demographic skews older, and conferences don’t automatically bring in 18-to-25-year-olds. Ivana stresses that WP Credits is one tool to change that, but the community must also meet young people where they are — on the social platforms they use — and present the project in ways that resonate.
In five years, Ivana hopes WP Credits will have helped shift the demographic balance by producing many more young contributors active in projects and at events. Success means more 20-somethings contributing to core, plugins, documentation, and community roles — bringing fresh perspectives and helping to sustain and evolve WordPress.
How to get involved
WP Credits needs mentors and business partners who are willing to engage directly with students. Companies interested in supporting the program should consider investing people first (mentors, reviewers), then products or sponsorships as a secondary contribution. Universities and educators can contact the WordPress Foundation to explore mapping the program into their curricula.
Ivana’s experience at WordCamp Europe is part outreach and part listening: she’s looking for businesses to weigh in, refine the program, and commit to mentoring. For students, the message is clear: WP Credits is a rare opportunity to do meaningful work, build a public record of contributions, and increase employability with real-world experience.
Ivana’s closing note for the podcast: WP Credits can be more than an education initiative — it can be a bridge connecting talent, institutions, and businesses to secure WordPress’s future and help a new generation find practical, valuable paths into tech and open-source contribution.