MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name:

Ada ITW

One-line solution summary:

Empowering women through technology

Pitch your solution.

Ada is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering thousands of young women in Latin America who are unemployed or do not have a formal job. To change this, it offers LAC women the possibility of studying programming. They may pay part of their tuition up-front with the intention and agreement to pay the remainder once they have landed a job in the IT industry. This business model is a game changer that promotes inclusion and reduces the gender gap in the IT industry. This business model is a game changer that allows the promotion of inclusion.

What specific problem are you solving?

Ada aims to aid the issue of the lack of talent in technology, the gender gap in technology and the labour participation of women in the workforce. 25 million young people without access to work or education in latam, 75% are women and it is estimated that technology companies in the region will need 1.2 million people in 2025.

In the last decades, women’s labor participation has increased, although it is still 25 percentage points lower than that of men. In contrast, the unemployment rate is three percentage points higher, which implies that despite having a lower participation rate, women constitute half of the unemployed in LAC (13 million of a total around 26 million people). Other indicators tell us about a disproportionate distribution of family responsibilities. There is a greater dedication to unpaid work, overrepresentation in informal employment (54.3 %), and part-time work that also is 20 percentage points higher than among men. Therefore, we can tell women are under precarious working conditions.

Ada provide an affordable and personalized learning plan for women from all parts of society (including those with some kind of vulnerability) to kickstart a career in technology and connect with companies that need their talent.

What is your solution?

Ada is an online learning experience for women of all over latin america with technical (400 hs in Frontend or Backend development) and soft skills training and an accompaniment for job placement in technology companies Our solution includes synchronous classes and asynchronous activities such as programming practice and theory through an online platform. They as well as gain hands-on work experiences with our professional practices program in which they develop a real world app for a non-profit with the accompaniment of experienced mentors.

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

Our primary focus is to empower women with no post-secondary education, without a job or with an informal jobs.

With our training, we intend to offer the benefited women the possibility of obtaining a formal and well-paid job, which implies the possibility of accessing social security and their own economic resources. Therefore, it leads to their instead to greater economic independence and in consequence, greater independence in general. This is what we mean when we talk about economic empowerment.

The benefits related to the economic women's empowerment are multiple and truly substantial, both in a social and individual sense. These are some of the most immediate benefits that women obtain by having access to their own economic resources:

It improves their ability to negotiate at home, on issues that affect their own lives and / or that of their children, and also potentially in the community and in society.
The increase in the contribution of income to the home by women considerably improves social and family well-being, the higher the income under the control of women, the greater spending on health and nutrition, which in turn contributes to breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty.
Economic power allows women to make strategic life decisions, such as postponing the age at which they marry and have children.
The economic empowerment of women protects them from gender violence since it is more likely to occur when the woman is in a position of dependency and has limited options in terms of remaining or ending the relationship.

Promoting women's relative control over income and other economic resources is a kind of magic formula that facilitates both gender equality and the wealth and well-being of nations. Women with economic power gain greater equality and control over their own lives, contribute directly to their children's human capital (nutrition, health, and education) and to poverty reduction.

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

Offer training and flexible curriculum in hard (technical) and soft (social and interpersonal) skills, preparing people for the work of the future

Explain how the problem you are addressing, the solution you have designed, and the population you are serving align with the TPrize Challenge.

Our goal is to provide young women with a real and effective opportunity to improve their job profile and get a formal job that allows them to achieve economic self-sufficiency and social security, through the training of technological skills, soft skills, and support in the job searching. This is in fact literally what the second dimension of the Challenge seeks: to strengthen STEM competencies to achieve an effective transition from education to employment.

We identified a problem: STEM gender gap and unequal female participation in the labor market

We identified an opportunity: an unmet high demand for technology professionals.

And we propose a solution: Train women in technology (specifically in Programming and Web Development) and accompany them in their insertion in a labor sector with a very high rate of employability, with the dual objective of reducing the gender gap and providing employment without generating extra pressure in the market, while helping to meet the needs of the local market.

So far the results have been quite successful and we hope to be able to replicate and expand them throughout the region, for which we need financing.

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

Buenos Aires, CABA, Argentina

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Scale: A sustainable enterprise working in several communities or countries that is looking to scale significantly, focusing on increased efficiency.

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution.

Today Ada is an established non profit organization working since 2017 on women empowerment through technology. Currently working with women from 13 countries of Latin America among other countries like USA, England and Australia.

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

María Celeste Medina, Co-Founder at Ada