“We have a sector (IT) that doesn’t grow anymore because it can’t find people with the required qualifications and that, in turn, offers good jobs. It is quite imperative and urgent to find a way to train these people so that they can quickly be employed in this industry”, says Pablo Darscht, general director of the National Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (Inefop).
To unite these two needs, that of labor and that of generating jobs, Inefop launched the Uruguay Bootcamp at the beginning of November, an event that was attended by national authorities and was held in the auditorium of the annex building of the Presidency .
The IT sector represents more than 3% of Uruguay’s GDP; however, its main limitation is the shortage of technicians with advanced skills in software development.
Darscht adds that it is about uniting this need of the industry “with job opportunities for people who have training in another area and want to retrain, or who are looking for a first work experience.”
Bootcamps are intensive training programs that require full dedication for three to six months. They are designed so that the student can develop a set of skills specifically required and validated by the industry.
Inefop supports training through scholarships for those who cannot access the course due to their socioeconomic status.
Presidency
Pablo Darscht, President Luis Lacalle Pou and the Minister of Labor, Pablo Mieres.
The other line of work of the program aims to co-finance intensive training carried out by companies in the industry. The approach is inspired by the Finishing Schools program that Inefop finances and is executed from Uruguay XXI and aims to train software developers, says Darscht.
“It has to do with supporting companies that want to organize internal training of this type to create their own developers, incorporating new people into the firm. There is going to be an aggressive subsidy program to make this much less expensive for companies,” he explains.
The general director reported that Inefop, together with industry leaders, will study each bootcamp that wishes to participate in the program. “The idea is that the bootcamps are validated. They (the validated bootcamps) select the people, and inform them that if they need it, they can apply for scholarships. To award the scholarship, Inefop analyzes only the socioeconomic condition, since the bootcamp has already preselected those who it considers fit to attend it, ”he explained.
“For this, we are being helped by leaders in the sector, businessmen and technicians with a career in IT in Uruguay. Basically, we are going to try to answer the question of whether today a Uruguayan company would hire someone who graduated from this bootcamp. We already did it with four initiatives in Uruguay: Holberton Foundation, Senpai, Hack Academy and UTEC. They are already participating in the program.
Those interested in the bootcamp must go to one of these institutions and start the admission process, which has a series of requirements. When the person is admitted to the bootcamp, then they can request a scholarship from Inefop to stay for the duration of the course, between three and six months. Through the program, people have access to a scholarship of up to $100,000 with a maximum monthly limit of $25,000 to finance the costs of the bootcamp in which they were admitted.
Darscht pointed out that in the first phase of the project, which will take two years, they hope to receive scholarships for around 400 people, and that 80% of that figure will be integrated into the workplace. “That’s the most direct goal,” he says.
“As the initiative seeks to have more bootcamps, we have another goal that aims for a thousand people to have gone through the training in these two years. The scholarships are for people in a medium-low socioeconomic situation. But there are many that are not and that we are also interested in doing so, ”she adds.
As for the other component, the one referring to companies, the objective is to add 240 people who are trained and inserted into the labor market in the companies that trained them. “In this project we are joined by many well-known people, such as directors of the CUTI (Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology). We designed this with them as well, as well as with the ANII and companies in the sector”, concludes Darscht.
More information: www.uruguaybootcamp.uy
Contact: [email protected]
