Narayan AmmachchiLatin American online retailing giant Mercado Libre and Argentinean technology unicorn Globant have teamed up to train as many as 10,000 young people in computer programming.
The training program, known as Certified Tech Developer, will be run by a regional tech training provider Digital House.
Both technology firms have agreed to invest US$10 million in the program, which will shortly get underway in Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia.
The 10,000 people will be trained over a two year period, according to Marcos Galperin, CEO of Mercado Libre.
Lack of tech talent has long been a hurdle for the IT services industry across Latin America. In Brazil alone, there is a shortage of more than 75,000 skilled technology professionals.
“Instead of complaining, we got together to generate ideas and change the dynamics,” stated Galperin after announcing the launch of the training program along with Globant’s CEO Martin Migoya, according to Spanish news outlet Infobae
“The objective is to create a new academic concept based on agile methodologies,” Galperin said, adding that all the candidates will have practical experience in programming.
As part of the program, the two companies will fund the training of 2,500 candidates.
“(Over the next) 5 years, the market will invest USD 7 trillion and we need people armed with this type of knowledge. This is an organic response. Programming is the new lingua franca in the world” Migoya said.
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