2023-09-13 13:38:17
Keislin Moreno is 20 years old. She lives in the Santa Cruz neighborhood. Three years ago she became pregnant by Israel. She was a single mother. She had a bad time. It’s a hot Tuesday, it’s 3 in the afternoon and she leaves class to attend the interview. She is in a sexual and reproductive health class that is part of the software development technique that she is studying at Cesde thanks to the Juanfe Foundation, an NGO in Medellín whose main objective is to break the cycles of poverty of vulnerable teenage mothers, Like Keislin.
At night, Keislin studies English and by day he works at a technology company based in Bogotá, where he is doing an internship. She almost always works and studies from home, which allows her to take care of his son.
Before becoming pregnant, Keislin had studied Television Production at the Seine and had started a technical degree at the Poli, but she had to abandon it to go to work. He sold candy on the street. Until a year ago he knew almost nothing about technology. One of his first encounters was at the beginning of this year, when he participated in a free database and data mining course that the Juanfe Foundation did in alliance with Softserve, a Ukrainian multinational that opened a headquarters in Medellín a year and a half ago. . Along with Keislin, 23 other teenage mothers were trained, who found the programming a good tool to confront poverty.
Also read: Companies and universities in Medellín are making a big splash in the metaverse
Since its arrival in Colombia, Softserve, born in Ukraine and with headquarters in Texas, has hired 250 Colombian workers to work with its clients, which are mostly foreign companies from various sectors. The multinational, with a presence in 25 countries, in addition to diversifying its portfolio in Latin America (where it can also hire cheaper labor than in Europe and the United States), has committed itself to training young people in Medellín in technological skills.
It’s an emergency. According to the ICT Ministry of Colombia, in just two years the country will have a deficit of 200,000 professionals in this sector, so if companies do not contribute to training in these skills, very soon they will not have labor to hire.
In addition to the agreement with the Juanfe Foundation (with which they have just started a second course with another 28 mothers), the Ukrainians made an alliance with Ruta N to train 480 young people in Python and Linux, the most in-demand programming languages in the world. . For the course, which is free and contains six modules and lasts 100 hours, 1,500 people signed up in just 24 hours. Seeing the life that digital nomads live in Medellín, who doesn’t want to be a programmer?
Read also: Why digital nomads prefer Medellín?
Likewise, this Wednesday, Softserve will begin a new Java course, another programming language, with 50 young people from Comuna 13 in alliance with the Code C13 academy, led by the Son Batá Corporation.
Pablo Velásquez is 17 years old, dark, skinny and has short hair. He was almost a striker for Envigado. He has the look. He lives with his father in Castilla and, in addition to playing ball, he has always liked to play on the computer. His father didn’t really like the idea, and until he was 14 he always kept it locked so he wouldn’t be stuck there. He now studies Telecommunications Engineering at the University of Antioquia and dreams of programming automatic cars, the kind that drive themselves.
Pablo is part of the first cut of the programming language course that Softserve is doing with Ruta N. He appeared at the call with several friends, but in the end only he passed. With what he learned in the program, the first semester of his degree has become much easier. He says that what he likes most about the ICT world is seeing what he thinks reflected on the screen and then writes in a code. He also sees in technology an opportunity to “help solve people’s problems.”
Pablo studied English. For years his father enrolled him in courses at Comfama. For John Howard, the person in charge of Softserve in Colombia, English is almost half of the task that someone must do if they want to enter this world of technology, where you can generally work from anywhere in the world and earn well. and in dollars. However, English is another pending subject for almost all young people in the country, which according to the latest Education First Colombia ranking ranks 77th globally for people with a second language. Furthermore, in the latest Pisa tests carried out in 2020, Colombia is one of the last countries in the region in bilingualism, where only 33% of 15-year-old students speak two or more languages (including their mother tongue). The OECD average that year was 68%.
Despite this, Howard is convinced that Colombia has the potential to become a great labor pool for large companies like his that, although they come to countries in Latin America or Eastern Europe in search of lower labor costs, , generate employment with excellent conditions.
This year, Softserve was rated the best place to work for young people in Colombia. The recognition was given by Firstjob, a technology company specialized in employability data. The study included 14,000 young people under 35 years of age from 103 companies.
There is a deficit of technological labor in Colombia
According to data from the ICT Ministry, in 2025 the country will have a deficit of approximately 200,000 professionals in the technology sector, that is more than double what is needed today, which is about 80,000. Only 35% of that current market is occupied by women. According to the World Economic Forum, in 2022 the jobs with the most demand in the country were: programmers, web developers, data and artificial intelligence specialists, cloud specialist engineers, digital product developers and cybersecurity experts.
However, the careers most studied by young Colombians in universities are not focused on technologies but rather on administrative and social sciences. In Colombia, only 34% of graduates are from careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics areas. In Argentina, Chile and Mexico, that figure is above 40%. However, it is common for young people who want to work in technology not to opt for a professional career, but rather to prefer training through shorter, specialized courses and workshops.
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