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Location
Lima, Peru
In Latin America, women remain a minority in the tech sector. Many women cannot afford quality higher education and thus are limited to a future of unemployment or informal work. Laboratoria observed that short of formal education, women in the region can benefit immeasurably from programs that equip them with tangible digital skills and opportunities to participate in the digital economy.
4 out of 10 women in Latin America lack access to education or formal jobs. 1
Starting as a web development agency in Lima in 2015, Laboratoria offers women in Latin America who have lacked access to quality education or jobs an opportunity to develop a career in tech. In cities in Peru, Chile, Mexico and Brazil, Laboratoria trains their students to become software developers and user experience designers through an immersive 6-month coding bootcamp. Following this training, graduates are connected with job opportunities in the tech sector. Laboratoria’s mission is to prepare women and tech companies for a more diverse, inclusive and competitive digital economy in Latin America.
Laboratoria’s vision is for Latin America to have a diverse, inclusive and competitive digital economy that creates opportunities for all people.
In Latin America, it is estimated that there are over 450,000 unfulfilled tech jobs. Young women are considerably affected. According to a 2017 report by the OECD, 30 million young women in Latin America are not in education, employment or training - and 76 percent of these are women.
At the same time, the private sector in the region is facing a significant talent gap around digital skills. According to the Inter-American Development Bank, software development will be the fastest growing career in the next decade, with Latin America needing over 1.2 million developers by 2025. The digital gender gap persists, and is expected to widen without interventions to include women into the digital economy. Laboratoria’s Bootcamp is one of the very few interventions seeking to prepare women for this growing demand.
Laboratoria applies Agile values and principles to the Bootcamp’s education and curriculum, with the view of making it more efficient, accountable, and preparing students for the constantly evolving jobs of the digital economy.2 Bootcamp material and learning objectives are constantly being evaluated and improved so that the curriculum is responsive to market demand.
Laboratoria Bootcamps facilitate project-based learning, allowing women to develop a real portfolio that resembles work experience and thus making them competitive in the job market. Furthermore, women are selected based on learning potential over prior experience. In the classroom, students study full-time for 6 months, work in groups, and develop the skill of learning how to learn and becoming life-long learners. Laboratoria also identified a need to help ensure that their graduates end up working within an ecosystem that facilitates their professional development and growth. To address this, in the last years, they have designed a program guiding companies through the process of cultural transformation that allows them to diversify their teams.
Laboratoria’s business model is such that it only charges students once they have been placed in companies, making the program both accountable and accessible. In addition to technical skills, Laboratoria prepares women from economically underserved backgrounds by developing socio-emotional skills required to build a successful career. The program is thus designed to serve specific needs of low-income women as they make the transition to formal work environments.
Laboratoria’s curriculum is designed to be responsive to market demand and is constantly evolving. Student selection is based on learning potential, as opposed to prior experience.
Since their bootcamp started, more than 1,500 women have graduated as front-end developers and UX designers. 80 percent of these graduates have secured jobs in the tech sector and over 400 companies have hired their graduates. Students have seen a three-fold increase in their income and enjoy a more diversified social network.
With locations in Peru, Mexico, Chile and Brazil, Laboratoria Bootcamp is expanding to Bogota, Colombia in 2020. Laboratoria’s vision is for Latin America to have a diverse, inclusive and competitive digital economy that creates opportunities for all people.
