MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name:

Hacker Hostel

One-line solution summary:

We help Small and Medium Size Companies access tech talent from vulnerable groups in the Caribbean

Pitch your solution.

Caribbean talent has a high migration rate of our tertiary educated students. In Jamaica, it is as high as 85%. As small businesses we end having very little talent left locally who can develop a local context of our problems and apply themselves to the solution.

We are proposing developing a remote talent pool that serves developed markets like the United States in industries still relevant to Jamaica, such as tourism, logistics and finance. We running large online hackathons across the Caribbean in partnership with international tech companies who would benefit a footprint in the Caribbean.

Our solution could put 5000 Caribbean STEM graduates per year to work within the next 5 years, given the right support and ride the trend of remote work keeping our local talent at home in a Post COVID World

Film your elevator pitch.

What specific problem are you solving?

As mentioned before, between an average of 80% of the Caribbean's tertiary graduates migrate to other countries. The average persists across most of Asia, Africa and Latin America. There are limitations to work visas being issued in countries like the US to protect their domestic employment. This results in under-employment of qualified tech talent who have been further disadvantaged in being exposed to emerging technologies in developed countries. This makes makes our economy less competitive globally. If we do not formalise their opportunities in the Digital space, underserved talent will resort to criminal acts like scamming developed markets. Remittances are already our number one GDP contributor and being blacklisted because of scamming further puts these markets in jeopardy. Anecdotal evidence from interviews done with underserved graduates who are involved in scamming, say that if they were able to earn just USD300 per week legally, they would not risk getting involved in scamming. We need more legal ways for our people to earn foreign exchange.

What is your solution?

On the same technologies available to our population – android phones and second hand laptops, we can deliver online training courses, mentorship and technology credits for developing web based solutions for operations problems within Medium-size companies. We focus on sectors that drive our local service economy like tourism, financial inclusion and logistics.

We teach the students about the target sectors, We filter for mentors and technology companies that are relevant to local companies within the industries for the local companies are dashboards for databases and interfaces to consumers and employees that help save time and money.

We teach the students using online videos, articles on from ur partner websites.

We deliver mentorships through video conferences and chatrooms.

Provide credentials to online technology platforms through git-based online repositories and the codebase is stored, tested and maintained there using Gitlab

The companies pay us to find them qualified talent.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

We engage with Students and displace employees in vulnerable industries.

We look for demand for solutions and tech talent among medium size businesses, usually through someone new to a position found on LinkedIn or people in Special interest/technology groups announcing job posts. In our training, quizzes, projects and mentorships, we evaluate strengths, competencies needs and aspirations of our participants and package them into a profile that is attractive to where we know our demand is and we make the match. We optimise our filtering of jobs and the training we give so our matching becomes more efficient.

As we get better, The displaced workers and students get better paying jobs for their skills and we find more sophisticated talent for the recruiters.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Equip workers with technological and digital literacy as well as the durable skills needed to stay apace with the changing job market

Explain how the problem, your solution, and your solution’s target population relate to the Challenge and your selected dimension.

If our displaced workers and recent graduates are less reliant on remittances and tourism, they will become more economically resilient and depend less on the proceeds of crime. We use predictive analytics from big tech companies to learn which of their features businesses and consumers will use in key sectors. We determine what courses are missing in training curriculum in tertiary programmes and train for the gaps. The businesses pay for the product of that exercise – workers equipped with technological and digital literacy as well as the durable skills needed to stay apace with the changing job market.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Kingston, Jamaica

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Growth: An organization with an established product, service, or business model rolled out in one or, ideally, several communities, which is poised for further growth

Who is the primary delegate for your solution?

Winston Wilkins