O-lab app
In 2016, the unemployment rate for Indigenous people of working age was 18.4%, 2.7 times the non-Indigenous unemployment rate.This is an increase from 15.6% in 2006.
O-lab is a platform & app that contain training programs to equip women in indigenous communities with technological and digital literacy as well as the durable skills needed to stay apace with the changing job market.Companies and NGO's can also upload their training programs, carrer and job opportunities,we translate the content to indigenous languages and make it accessible through our app to women leaders and marginalized communities across LATAM.The app can be used offline in any device from their communities.
Indigenous youth in Latin America face great gaps in access to education and employment due to language barriers. This solution has been designed by indigenous youth to access to education and jobs opportunities for themselves.
Access to education has improved dramatically for indigenous people in Latin America since the schools in rural areas were allowed to teach in their mother languages, with data indicating more than 90% of indigenous boys and girls are getting some schooling (UN's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean' report). However,higher education remained out of reach for many due to languages barriers and access.Indigenous youth globally are subjected to extreme poverty,trafficking and illiteracy.Just in Colombia,we have more than 1.500.000 indigenous people registered which more than 70% are youth and represent the highest levels in poverty and unemployment.
In La Guajira, where the largest indigenous community of Colombia and Venezuela lives, and where our founder was born, 65.4% of indigenous youth are engaged in household chores and do handicrafts. Only 35.2% of youth living in these rural areas have finished high school and have not been enrolled in any other learning program since then,and they don't know how to sell their products online. This app have been designed by indigenous youth for indigenous youth and our software makes us highly scalable and accessible to reach a large number of indigenous people across the LATAM and the world.
Indigenous youth in Latin America continue to face great gaps in access to education and employment due to language barriers. O-lab is a learning platform & app that contains training programs to equip youth in indigenous communities with technological and digital literacy as well as the durable skills needed to stay apace with the changing job market. Companies and NGO's can also upload their training programs and job opportunities, we translate the content and make it accessible through our app, which can be used offline in any device, to young leaders in indigenous communities and marginalized communities across LATAM to access to training and jobs opportunities for themselves.
O-lab which is a platform & app that work with public and private institutions to offer online/offline courses in a variety of subjects to connect with rural communities and give access to programs, career, employment and business opportunities. We are using an user-friendly mobile app with an interface and user experience adapted to the indigenous communities it is connected to a platform for content management which makes this product highly scalable allowing institutions around the world reach rural communities everywhere.The app can be installed in any device and it doesn't require internet connection to be used.The process is simple:
1. Companies and NGO's upload their training program through our platform.
2. With the help of indigenous women leaders we translate the content to the indigenous language.
3. We install the app with all the contents in a tablet or a mobile device and distribute to the communities, where the women leader selected recieve and distribute internally,she is trained to train and create opportunties for themselves.
4. The app gathers data to increase the data-based decition making and evidence of the impact the program had in the users and connect with potencial partners or employers.
- Equip workers with technological and digital literacy as well as the durable skills needed to stay apace with the changing job market
We have been working with indigenous communities in Colombia and Venezuela reducing their barriers to access jobs and quality learning opportunities to succeed and it is ready to be used for indigenous people across LATAM. We have designed a solution made by indigenous youth for indigenous youth tested in different groups to ensure their total understanding and the effectiveness of the process. Our impact have shown that by giving them the right resources to learn and be trained they have more opportunities to suscess.
- Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one community
- A new business model or process
We provide a tech-driven solution in an user-friendly app to reduce the gap in acess to education and jobs for indigenous youth.
Our app guides the users through audio messages in their mother language, it is customized. So any person even with low literacy skill can use the app and be trained in a variety of subjects.
The app contains training programs that also help indigenous youth explore phonology, vocabulary and it gathers data for companies and NGO's who have operations in their area. We develop their full potential to acess or create jobs.
Our technology makes us highly scalable and accessible to reach a large number of communities it can be used by any marginalized community offline or online.
Our business model allow us to provide education and job opportunities translated in native languages for free to indigenous youth.
The platform allows partners to create dynamic interactive resources in native languages. Our multilingual platform is a software that allows companies and NGO's who pays a set up and anual suscription to create training programs, be translated into many native languages, shared with their target and follow up their process/impact. We distribute the program through our app which is free for the users. We have partnered up with tech companies and governments to distribute the app installed in tablets to communities with lack of access that have required help to continue their rural business.
Companies and NGO's reduce their costs of knowledge transmition and recluting and instead create more installed capacity in the communities.
The app is being tested in the largest indigenous group of Colombia, with indigenous youth and immigrant youth in the boarder are with Venezuela. During this year we have had significant achievements, such: 7 out of 10 beneficiaries complete at least one education program, 9 out of 10 affirmed to gain interest in education thanks to the programs, 2 out of 10 started their own business, 5 out of 10 scaled up their handicraft business, 1 out of 10 got a job once completed the first education programs.
- Ancestral Technology & Practices
- Software and Mobile Applications
Worlwide aboriginal unemployment rates are 3 times the non-Aboriginal rates. By giving access to customized training programs for indigenous youth we are providing them more opportunities to be elegilible for a job opportunity in the growing number of companies and NGO's arriving to their territory and/or create new jobs in their communities.
- Women & Girls
- Children & Adolescents
- Rural
- Poor
- Low-Income
- Refugees & Internally Displaced Persons
- Minorities & Previously Excluded Populations
- 1. No Poverty
- 4. Quality Education
- 5. Gender Equality
- 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
- 10. Reduced Inequalities
- 17. Partnerships for the Goals
- Colombia
- Chile
- Mexico
- Peru
We have been testing the app in 500 indigenous youth across Colombia and Venezuela boarder.
By 2021 we project to reach over 10.500 indigenous youth living in rural and urban areas, this number represent less than 1% of our users target in just the local area.
By 2025 we project to have a coverage of over 42.000 users. Working with public and private institutions across Colombia, Mexico and Chile.
Our success is described on bringing education and employment opportunities to young indigenous people who represent the highest level of unemployment across LATAM working with companies, NGO's and community leaders to provide this solution to territories where there is a high level of unployment but at the same time a growing number of job opportunities arising around.
Financial: We require to increase our specialized team to grow faster.
We need to increase our numbers of partners
- Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit
O-lab have been developed by Fundacion EL Origen founded by O-lab's CEO Tania Rosas
full-time staff: 5
part-time staff: 3
contractors:2
We have worked in the past in the NGO the founder led. Our team stands because of:
We are led by a purpose
We are young and passionate about innovation
We come from different backgrounds and are eager to learn
We are enthusiasm towards the business idea and long term vision of the founder
We are complementarity
We have capacity to work under pressure and through hard times
TEAM
TANIA ROSAS
FOUNDER & CEO
28 years old
Politics and international relations professional
+6 years of experience working in projects by and for indigenous communities in Colombia and Mexico.
Fellow of Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative
TATIANA ROSAS
Treasure
25 years old
3+ years of experience
Master in finance
ABELIS ORTIZ
CMO
26 years old
Digital marketing expert
7 + Years of experience in social campaigns
DANER AGUILAR
CTO
28 years old
Engineer
3+ year Developing Technologies for education
BRYNNER DELUQUEZ
COO
35 years old
Educator
Indigenous leader
9+ Years teaching experience
Amber Hammond
Relationship manager
35 years old
Bussiness
Serial entreperneurs
-Renewal energy companies (Energias de Bogota y EPM): They have paid a suscription to offer their job training program to inidigenous communities.
-Green our planet: we offer their training program to inidigenous communities.
-University of La Guajira: we offer their carrer training program to inidigenous communities.
-Comfaguajira: we offer their skills training program to inidigenous communities.
-Government of La Guajira: We reach the communities across this territory.
O-lab is an education provider. O-lab does not only provide the programs created by fundacion El Origen but partners with companies, universities, NGO’s and other organizations that pay a set up and an annual subscription for the number of beneficiaries they want their programs to reach through our app, reducing the costs for knowledge transmission and accessing to a broader number of beneficiaries in communities with not internet connection and lack of access.
- Organizations (B2B)
We sell our services to companies and NGO's it cover our expenses and to grow we are looking to increase our partners.

Co-founder