Big Tech companies have ambitious goals for tapping their professional certificate programs to close skills gaps in tech. And the U.S. is a small piece of those campaigns.
Microsoft, for example, says it reached more than 30M learners with a global initiative the company launched during the pandemic. It recently announced AI and digital skills training plans for millions of people across Poland, South Africa, Nigeria, Malaysia, and other nations.
Likewise, IBM is seeking to skill 30M people globally across 170 academic and industry partnerships in more than 30 countries. The company offers free tech training, courses, and credentials through its IBM SkillsBuild, and has upped the ante with plans to train 2M people in AI.
Those are big numbers. But what do these programs look like on the ground?
Brazil’s Instituto Caldeira is an example of a creative tech training solution that features a prominent role for Big Tech certs. The nonprofit hub located in Porto Alegre offers free, hybrid training to young people (ages 16-24). Instituto Caldeira is demand-driven, and was founded in 2019 by 42 companies.
“We have a gap of over 700K tech positions in the country that will not have qualified professionals to fill them in the next few years,” says Felipe Amaral, director of the Campus Caldeira, the education platform of the Instituto Caldeira. “This poses a significant challenge for a developing country like Brazil in terms of economic growth and social mobility.”
Work Shift wrote about the hub two years ago, shortly after it began with a pilot project serving 50 students from public schools in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. AWS and Oracle were initial sponsors of the training, which includes a scholarship of 5K Brazilian Reals (about $908).
Since then, 10K students have successfully completed three-month online education tracks offered through the hub, receiving training in Java, data, AI, marketing and design and sales. Top-performing learners in each cohort receive mentoring and job referrals. Of the 450 alumni of the campus-based version of the program, more than 300 now work in high-quality jobs at one of 500 companies affiliated with Instituto Caldeira.
Microsoft is now a content provider for the tech training, with IBM in talks to become one. Instituto Caldeira also offers curated content from AWS, Oracle, Salesforce, and Nvidia. Artificial intelligence skills are increasingly a focus of those programs.
“This year, we anticipate receiving 50,000 applications from young people throughout Brazil, who will gain direct access to global education platforms focused on AI,” says Amaral.
The tech partners provide certifications that are targeted to in-demand fields, equipping students with skills employers need. Amaral says Instituto Caldeira’s deepening relationships with those global tech giants help it to change the lives of thousands of young people from underserved backgrounds, while also backing the region’s companies and economic growth. And the tech hub is looking to expand.
The Kicker: “The partnerships with major tech companies are essential to Caldeira’s strategy for scaling our impact across Brazil and Latin America,” he says.