Mendoza Futura

The 4th industrial revolution is in full swing. Driven by the convergence of digital, physical and biological technologies, the world as we know it is changing. In order to adapt to these changes, we must create spaces for our youth to hone the essential skills needed to guarantee personal and professional success: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, character and citizenship.

To accomplish this goal, Mendoza Futura provides opportunities for students to develop their competences by providing them with training in innovation, research and technologies through an articulated curriculum that integrates hard and soft skills. We believe that this program will exert a great positive impact in the participants’ lives and also in the province’s economy, since it aims at human capital formation oriented to territorial development and the local industry.

Given the disconnection between the demands of the current labor market and the students in the process of training, Mendoza Futura aspires to be a bridge that narrows the gap between the vacancy areas of Mendoza’s productive matrix and the students who will be the future force of work.

This training program has a flexible curriculum, combining internships in laboratories that train young people in Programming, Electronics and Biotechnology with clubs that promote transversal activities to develop social skills, a spirit of inquiry, creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and financial education. We are convinced that this training is key for the work of the future.

We know this lack of training affects the young people who hope to find a well-paid, rewarding job after completing their secondary studies, that is why in the first instance, our program will aid 360 students, but it aims to double the number of participants during the 2022 school year and eventually reach the whole community of students in high-school.

Mendoza Futura aims to match our students' labor needs with the sources of demand present in the province, providing training opportunities for young people who show interest in the program; thus promoting the specialization of our future professionals.

The facilities where the program will be carried out have been chosen in each of the 18 boroughs of the province, and the participants attend two weekly meetings in these facilities for four months before or after school hours. The training is conducted by pedagogical teams who lead the groups by stimulating learning, research, and guiding the creation process through experimentation activities and collaborative work.

For these processes to be carried out successfully, we have made laptops available to the participants and we have connectivity in each of the centers where the meetings are held.

At the end of the program, students receive certification endorsed by the Ministry of Education and articulation networks are established with some of the companies that claim to be seeking human resources.

The target audience of the program is, in the near future, the whole community of young people in the province who attend secondary schools and are between 15 and 18 years old. We believe that their school training is not fully oriented to the needs of the world of work. We understand then, the urgency of providing these students with tools that allow them to access jobs that improve their quality of life.

It is our desire to involve these young people as the program unfolds, so we are designing instruments to measure their progress, and periodic surveys will be carried out after each module of the program.

We hope to see the impact of our program both in the short and long term: in the short term our program will be reflected in a quick entrance of these students into the labor market. In the long term, we expect to notice an increase in the productive matrix of the province with more local businesses and SMEs.

Mendoza Futura is strongly aligned with the TPrize Challenge objectives, since the program was born from an analysis of data provided by the local industry, which show the need to promote solutions for large areas of vacancy in the world of work. This need is present in many sectors of Latin America. To these data we add the consequences left by the COVID-19 pandemic, which amplified existing inequalities, caused job loss, and weakened many school careers. To face this situation, Mendoza Futura will prepare young people for a post-covid world, enabling them to thrive in the work of the future.

Mendoza Futura is currently in its pilot stage, since the initial target were 360 students (since this is a federal intiative, 20 applicants from each borough were selected). This selection considered the students' interest in the topics of the program.

As of the 2022 school year onwards, it is expected that the population of students accessing the program increases exponentially.

Human and technological resources are already in the territory and the program is being implemented throughout the province with two weekly meetings. Although some adjustments are still being made, more than 70% of the selected students actively participate in it and both the Ministry and the schools are taking action to encourage all of them to attend the meetings.

Mendoza Futura offers an innovative solution to the disconnection between the needs of the labor market and students in training. This solution was born from an integrated approach between two government agencies with different objectives and audiences, that are now cooperating and working together towards the same goal.

This program proposes a new way of training future professionals, since not only are they offered technical training, but they are also provided with opportunities to develop soft skills through collaborative work and problem-solving tasks. Mendoza Futura's approach is holistic and comprehensive, and tries to cater for all the XXI century skills.

The core technology that powers our solution is a set of individual laptops with programming softwares such as Python installed. We also count with IPS that make online work possible.

Mendoza Futura is divided in two big "learning stations" in which the participants learn about identity management, digital citizenship and online security, mainly antivirus programs and firewalls. They are also introduced to cloud storage. Besides, students count with hardware and internal components to carry out tasks related to hardware architecture and network connection, among others.

Regarding the facilitators, they use collaborative apps to keep track of the participants' progress, attendance, and they make use of Google apps. 

Python is used by massive companies such as: Intel, IBM, NASA, Pixar, Netflix, Facebook, JP Morgan Chase, Spotify, and a number of others. It is one of the four main languages at Google,  Google's YouTube, Reddit, Pinterest, and Instagram. This is why learning how to program using this language and applying this technology in our course was paramount from the very beginning.

Google also provides the applications that we use as a service, rather than as software to download and install, which is great given that for the time being, Mendoza Futura relies on mid-range devices for our students to work with.

The technology we use does not imply any risks.

At the moment, Mendoza Futura provides a job for 72 teachers who work as facilitators in the pedagogical teams. It also offers classes for 360 students.

We expect to double the numbers in 2022 and by 2027 we will have reached the entire community of students in secondary school. 

To this number, we add the local companies that will be direclty affected by the amount of candidates that will be enabled to occupy high-demand positions.

Mendoza Futura expects to transform the lives of more than 150.000 students in secondary school, and also hundreds of SMEs and other local companies by building up networks that strengthen the education system's relation to the world of work.

Through the program, our young will achieve skills and qualifications that will increase their opportunities to find and keep a high-powered, well-paid job.

We will accomplish this task through the use of ICT, the facilitators' lead and immediate feedback to the participants of Mendoza Futura, and through an effective communication with the local businesses to give answer to the needs of their companies.

Mendoza Futura involves the participants in the measurement of their own progress by administering self-assessment rubrics, and we also invite them to complete surveys as regards the content and the methodology of the course to make the necessary adjustments throughout the program.

The facilitators assess the students' progress considering not only the result of the tasks at hand, but also taking into account their comments after the tasks are completed. Participants are invited to reflect upon the strategies they use to solve the activities proposed, and the facilitators give them feedback based on the students' own conclusions.

After the program is completed, we hope to measure the employability of these participants by contacting the companies in need of work force. 

Our solution team works for both the Ministry of Economy and the Education Department of the province. These two government agencies provide services and manage affairs for the Mendocinian community.

Full time staff: 30

Part time staff: 80 

The Heads of both the Ministry of Economy and the Education Department have vast experience in launching programs that offer services to a target group of the community. Our team is made up of professionals that have worked in the territory for many years and are aware of the specific needs that both the education system and the local market present. 

Many members of the team who carry this project out are high-school teachers, who know the weaknesses of traditional education. Many others are economists and entrepreneurs who have spotted the deficiencies in the current work force and how they struggle to progress in life. 

We are committed to narrow the gap of inequalities in our province, which is why Mendoza Futura was launched for those students who do not have easy access to digital technologies but do show an interest in the field.

Both the Mendoza Futura Team and the participants of the program are offered instances of collaborative work, in which they build a friendly atmosphere where all of the participants feel valued and respected.

We apply to the TPrize Challenge because we strongly believe that articulating the education system with the local market is key to a better future. Larger, sustainable and human-centered companies will elevate the quality of life of people in Latin America. This can be achieved by integrating hard and soft skills in a flexible curriculum that empowers the youth to get better jobs.

Mendoza Futura will also benefit from international networks of cooperation and mentoring.

Winning the TPrize will help us to fund more resources to improve Mendoza Futura's second edition.

Mendoza Futura has very concrete partnership needs to accelerate its growth.

We wish to partner with Universities and local and international business companies that can help us build stronger networks for the future of our youth. These alliances can help Mendoza Futura with mentoring, resources and financial aid.