Via Codigo, a nonprofit organisation teaching high skilled web development and soft skills program at juvenile detention centers, is pleased to announce it’s goals for 2019. Thanks to key alliances with the Forge Foundation and the global recruitment platform Transformify, teenagers that go through their program, will broaden their job opportunities at an international level by applying to remote jobs. Also, the non-profit will start offering their program outside the juvenile detention centers.
Via Codigo aims to tackle teenage crime issues from its roots, by using the education on high demand technology skills as a prevention tool for teenagers in vulnerable environments. On its first stage, the non-profit has been working at the CJDR-L, Peru’s largest male juvenile detention center, known as ‘Maranguita’. “We have been working with teenagers from day one to give them tools and skills to help them find a good job and keep them away from crime”, points out Pedro Baumann, Via Codigo’s Executive Director.
Training highly- skilled web developers
The teenagers that go through the program, receive training and mentorship from top-level renowned local and international professionals, while also receiving psychological accompaniment. The students are thus trained to become top frontend developers ready to compete at an international level, and ready to work on real-life projects from the detention center.
Via Codigo has a running Webshop inside the detention center that currently works for local clients. The teenagers work as freelancers while Via Codigo manages the communication with the clients. “It’s like hiring an agency at a freelancers rate. They have the unfair advantage of having a team of volunteers helping them that come from some of the best agencies in the country”, affirms Baumann.
More doors are opened thanks to Transformify
To reach even more clients and beneficiaries, Via Codigo has allied with Transformify, a global Freelancer Management System ( FMS) based in the UK, to connect vulnerable populations with remote jobs. Since December, Via Codigo's clients can query for Via Codigo as a special skill using Transformify's search engine, and easily hire Via Codigo developers.
“Transformify also offers us access to its global analytics reports on the digital skills gap, which can guide us in choosing the right skills to teach according to the remote job market demand
They are also sharing with us digital courses created by them to match top- level masters degrees, so we can test them on our students and broaden our offering”, shares Baumann.
The opportunities generated by this alliance are many, Transformify has a broad spectrum of remote jobs available. “Not all teenager profiles fit into or are interested in our web development program, but we want to work with Transformify to broaden their options”, comments Baumann. The non-profit plans to start a pilot program in March 2019 where, with the help of the Peruvian Ministry of Justice, they will teach Digital Marketing and low entry jobs to test their viability.
The future: from young offenders to prevention
The non-profit is preparing to start in February 2019 to work in conjunction with the Forge Foundation on two web development programs, this time outside the detention centers, piloting the same model on vulnerable teenagers.
Via Codigo’s mid-term plans are to expand their development training to new areas. “We are working on an alliance with Area 51 training center to develop Android and iOS programs. Area 51 has already agreed to certify our students on web development if they pass an examination”, says Baumann.
Pedro Baumann wants to be clear about their goals: “Finding a job is the secondary objective for our students. The primary goal is to give vulnerable teenagers access to education and help them develop personal and technical skills that go beyond basic technical training. Programming is a powerful tool that in conjunction with our soft skills development program, generates a great impact on the way they approach life and empowers them as capable individuals. We want to provide them with tools that give them the chance to think about a brighter future.”
About Via Codigo
Via Codigo is a nonprofit organisation with mid and long-term plans to help young offenders find new options in life through employability, while also working on crime prevention by offering them a high-level education and access to good job opportunities. It is backed by a multidisciplinary team of social psychologists, philosophers developers and social researchers. An ideal team to tackle a project as complicated as this one. It has operated for the past two years in Peru’s largest juvenile detention center with an amazing success rate. In 2019, Via Codigo plans to start working with the female population as well as opening its programs to non incarcerated teenagers.
About Transformify
Transformify is an award-winning Freelancer Management System ( FMS). Trusted by recruiters and businesses from 150+ countries, Transformify empowers diversity recruitment and helps businesses of all sizes source, onboard, manage and pay consultants, experts, remote workers and freelancers. Transformify Freelancer Management System ( FMS) leverages cutting-edge technology to attract active applicants to each job, match them based on their skills and salary expectations, manage the recruitment process and transfer payment to them all in one, thus saving 60% on average on recruitment costs.
The CSR ( corporate social responsibility) programs aim to revitalize high-unemployment areas and provide jobs to people in need.
About Forge Foundation
Forge Foundation has its headquarters in Switzerland, and its main goal is to grant low-income Latin American teenagers their right to professional education. They have an innovative training and employment program. Forge Foundation has a great presence and outreach in Lima. It began working in Peru 5 years ago and is at the moment training and finding jobs for 2000 vulnerable teenagers for free per year. It has developed a network of over 70 Peruvian businesses that hire from their ranks.