To bring together the talent of women and men between the ages of 16 and 35 with the needs of companies and that, in addition, there is the possibility of reaching jobs with income salaries that can be for 3 million pesos, the great goal.
In an interview with El Espectador , Protalento CEO Juan David Aristizabal, who is also co-chair of the World Economic Forum in 2019 and listed as one of the 17 most important emerging WISE leaders in the world, tells in detail what this initiative is about. It aims to get young job seekers to fill these positions that companies so badly need, specifically in technology.
What is Protalent?
We are an accelerator of digital careers and technology for people in Latin America. We use technology to detect talents and promote them so that they can reach opportunities in the job market. Our mission is to promote talented people interested in technology to close the unemployment gap and accelerate the progress of Latin America. We believe in a market solution that trusts and bets on Latin American talent and attracts the educational and financial resources necessary to change the future of our community.
How does it work? How does a person or organization access?
We believe that everyone should have a manager and that is why we decided to create this solution. For people who are having difficulties in their job conversion or want to enter the world of technology, or digital, they can apply. As talent managers we offer training routes relevant to the needs of the labor market. what do I want to say with that? That thanks to the data of the companies and the labor needs of the market we know how our talents should be trained. Steps: first, we identify job opportunities in the business network. Second, we look for talents who have the potential to fill these identified positions. We make a specific call for the needs of companies. Third, we select a group of talents that we train and accompany to bring them closer to the best job opportunity according to their interests and profile.
The training includes a ‘bootcamp’ to develop ICT skills, the development of a degree project, mathematics, data analytics, English and, our backbone, skills training for the 21st century, with an emphasis on socio-emotional skills. We hire the best tutors and institutions for training. The accompaniment includes a team of tutors in the different components of the training and a mentor for each talent, which is also a key part of the equation. The mentor is a successful professional from various sectors, who inspires, guides and becomes a benchmark for talents. Fourth, we seek, with the talents, a great job opportunity and we accompany them in the preparation and application process. Finally, we finish with a follow-up to the process of adapting talent to the company and we form a network of talents who exchange experiences and support each other throughout their careers.
Follow the news of El Espectador on Google NewsTo apply for this route, people can apply at: https://protalento.org/me-quiero-postular/ At this time the third call is open, until December 5, 2020. In this call we are looking for people between 16 and 35 years old, passionate about technology, with high development of mathematical and socio-emotional skills, with notions of programming and even interested in doing a job conversion. We invite companies with technology talent needs to contact us. We are training talented people, who can strengthen their teams.
Youth unemployment is a critical problem in our society. How can you solve this problem?
ProTalento was born, precisely, partly motivated by reducing unemployment figures. There are many people, especially young people, looking for jobs and on the other hand, many companies are looking for talents in technology. At ProTalento we want to bring these two realities closer together and ensure that young people seeking employment occupy these positions that companies need so much, specifically in technology. Knowing what companies want, we seek that our talents are trained in what the market requires and thus have a greater chance of employment.
The loss of employment with the arrival of the pandemic has impacted women more strongly. How to improve the working conditions of women?
The technology sector is precisely a sector in which women have participated to a lesser extent than men. This has a historical gap behind that means that fewer women study careers related to technologies and, consequently, have fewer job opportunities in this sector. On the other hand, the technology sector offers proportionally higher salaries than other sectors. For example, with the allied companies of ProTalento we estimate that the entry salary can be around 3 million pesos. At ProTalento we are focused on linking women and that is why we have allied with organizations such as Geek Girls and Juventus, to recruit women and even take affirmative measures to apply and select them. In this way we hope that more women will reach the technology sector and access the salaries offered by this sector.
They say that universities are not training the professionals that the world of work needs, or at least what is needed right now. What is your position on it?
Today multiple solutions are needed for job transformation and retraining. It is a reality that in the technology sector, universities are not yet graduating enough people to fill the available positions and that, furthermore, the training proposals they are offering are not able to respond to the speed at which the sector is transforming. In this sense, ProTalento is committed to being 4.0 managers, that is, using data to create training routes, support and greater chances of having the profile that companies need. We are not a training institution, nor do we intend to replace formal education, but we do consider that due to the needs of the sector, the training that universities are doing is not enough.
What opportunities can you offer for those young people who do not have money to go to university but also do not get quality jobs?
This is one of the profiles we are looking for. There are talented people who do not have the economic possibilities of going to university. For these people we offer the routes of training, support and conversion of their profile into one highly desired by the labor market, which allow them to access stable and well-paid jobs, which allow them to have income to advance in a career in technology, it can be at a university or through alternative training.
You talk about Full Stack Devolpers, Front Developers, Data Scientist and UX / UI Designers. Who are not there are not of your interest?
No, these are the profiles that we are currently identifying, but in each call we look for people with different profiles, based on the companies associated with the call. In conclusion, we are looking for people with interests and who want to train their talent to have these profiles or others to work in the technology sector.
What about those who have been trained empirically but do not have degrees to certify their skills?
The needs of the sector to hire talent are so great that the diploma is no longer a requirement. At ProTalento we bet that people without a diploma, with robust training and strategic support, can achieve great job opportunities. That is why we bet on talent, beyond titles. We evaluate ICT skills to ensure that they can be successful in the work they achieve because, among other things, they have the necessary technical training. In addition, we train talents so that they see challenges as great opportunities, that they are determined to achieve goals and grow with difficulties. This is why 21st century skills training is our backbone. What our talents do not know or are not certified, we teach them to learn independently.
There are many people over 50 who can no longer find work but do have proven skills. Is there an option for them here?
In the current call we are looking for people between 16 and 35 years old, because they are the needs that we currently identify among our allied companies. We hope to have calls with different age ranges according to the needs of the companies.
Who is behind Protalento?
Behind ProTalento is a team with quality training, with experience in education, in working with young people, in skills for the 21st century, especially in socio-emotional skills and, above all, with a vocation to serve and work to close gaps and bring closer opportunities. The management team includes Laura Aristizabal, Employability Leader; Camila Gómez, Pedagogical Leader; Rubith Tuberquia, Operations Leader; Victor Saavedra, Economist and Javier Zulia, Data Scientist. On the corporate side, there is Village Global, Grupo de la Bolsa de Valores de Colombia and Sophos. For the allied educational institutions are Acamica and Slang. For the accelerators, the Harvard Innovation Center and the Qatar Foundation. The founding partners are Mariano Parró, Juan David Aristizábal and Victor Saavedra. And the founding board is made up of Vicky Colbert, former Vice Minister of Education; Santiago Suarez, founder of addi; Paola Restrepo, former director of Fedesoft; Jimmy Garcia, social entrepreneur; Javier Arce, former minister and Monica Contreras, businesswoman.