Giving low-income women a career in tech

In a 6-month blended program, we prepare young women from low-income backgrounds to become software developers, and connect them with jobs in tech. By developing life-long learning habits and life skills, our graduates triple their personal income and are changing what is means to be a programmer in Latin America.

Higher education is very limited in access to low-income youth. Technical education, often targeting lower-income youth, often lacks the tools to build critical life skills to sustain employment. Most job-training programs targeting low-income youth focus on basic skills that will get youth a job but not a career. Hence, despite their talent and potential, most young people from lower-income backgrounds end up in low-paid, informal employment, without much opportunity for mobility. Laboratoria is building an accessible, holistic and blended education model to prepare low-income women to fill in jobs in high-demand niches, such as tech.

In six months, and at a fraction of the cost of higher education, we prepare low-income women to work as software developers. Our graduates not only get a job that solves their economic needs - they launch a career that will transform their future. Our solution is effective because: 1) it focuses on the technical and the personal, considering the particular needs of lower-income women to transition to formal employment, 2) it’s backed by an LMS that enables blended and customized learning, making it scalable, 3) it’s accountable, as graduates only pay once and if they secure employment.

Young women from low-income backgrounds are our primary beneficiaries. In every city where we have a training center (currently 4), we run a call for applicants, select students to join, take them through the placement program and place them in software development jobs. On average our students triple their personal income and double the family income, transitioning to middle class households. The tech sector also benefits by the diverse talent influx, as well as the wider higher education system by learning from our approach and best practices.

Monitoring & evaluation data which follows graduates for 3 years - 10,000 developers inserted in the industry as software developers by 2021

Baseline survey, and monitoring & evaluation data which follows graduates for 3 years - On average, graduates placed triple their income and double their family income

Partnership with training centers to replicate our program - At least 20 training centers apply best practices from Laboratoria

Laboratoria is a new education model: one that provides young people with the skills they need to be competitive in today’s digital economy, in the shortest possible time and at the lowest possible cost.

Our program provides underprivileged youth with a path towards employment that: 1) responds to market demand, 2) prepares students in months, not years, and 3) leverages the use of technology and blended learning methods to enhance learning. 

We have built all our technology under a lean approach, advancing it in response to our applicants's, students' and hiring companies' real needs. Every new component in our platform begins with a Minimum Viable Product to reach our users as soon as possible. Then, after seeing their interaction with it and gathering data from its use, we continue to develop new features. In the case of our LMS, we are working to have all content available offline, for example, which is a requirement given the low band-with our students have access to outside of class. 

Every time we start a new cohort we run a widespread call for applicants through 1) social media, 2) mass earned media, 3) organizations serving low-income communities, and 3) graduate referrals. As the popularity of our program grows, we grow in number of applicants, reaching over 4,000 on our latest drive in three centers. As a first step, we run a baseline survey with applicants to verify they have not been able to access quality higher education before. To make our program accesible, we only charge our students once they secure employment, aligning all our incentives. 

We have three main revenue streams. 1) The payment of our students once they secure employment. They engage in a continuing education program where they pay an average of $140 a months for 2 years, repaying the direct cost of the program. 2) Company payment for hiring our developers. Hiring companies pay to take part in key hiring events, as well as a placement fee. 3) Company training. We are training potential hiring companies that are just beginning to build their digital teams on how to do so. 

The market demand for software developers is the key factor to determine our scale. We need to scale in respond to this demand, as we need to place our graduates. It is a still relatively small market compared to others, but growing steadily. By 2025, Latin America will need 1.2 million software developers. We also need to make sure our curricula adapts and evolves to respond to the changes in this demand, always. 

We think Solve has the potential to connect us with the kind of partners we need to scale Laboratoria in Latin America and beyond. Moreover, to build the kind of technology we envision for a truly blended program that enables self-paced learning, we want to partner with organizations with this expertise who can support us along the way. 

Our main regional partners are Google.org, the Inter-American Development Bank, Omidyar Network and Microsoft.

Other bootcamps in Latin America.