{reprograma}
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : m**t@r********a.c*m.br
Mission Statement
Reprograma is a social impact startup focused on closing the IT gender gap in Brazil and diversifying tech teams. Reprograma is the only programming bootcamp in Brazil focusing on underserved and vulnerable women, specifically, black and indigenous and those identified as non-white, transgender and unemployed women – women who cannot afford a similar coding course and really want to get a job in the technology sector, and that is free of charge for them. The IT sector is a growing sector in Brazil. In 2015 it was estimated at US$ 165b, employing 1.3 million workers (Brasscom, 2015). The number of startups almost tripled in the last three years – from 4,300 to 12,700 – and a deficit of 260,000 programmers currently exists (Brasscom, 2019). Moreover, the lack of diversity in technology is a lost economic opportunity for startups in Brazil. Diversity is proven to attract more diversity and generate higher revenues for companies. An IT growing sector is a great opportunity for the 16 million unemployed Brazilian women (IBGE, 2019). Barely 15% of computer science graduates are women (Inep/MEC, 2017), and black, brown and indigenous women only make up 11% of all technology jobs in Brazil (Exame, A Corrida Pelos Devs; March 2020). Reporgrama students come from mid to low-income backgrounds (C1 and C2), many from vulnerable groups (transgender women, afro descendants, and unemployed), many of them are mothers, all of them looking for an opportunity to change their lives. Most don't believe in their capacity to become programmers - due to a lack of societal/family support, and a safe environment conducive to effective learning.
About This Cause
It is a non-profit organization that started implementing in-person coding bootcamps in 2016 to tackle the lack of diversity in startup’s technology teams. In 2019 we started piloting online coding bootcamps as a way to expand reach and impact at a lower cost. We focus on front and back-end programs (only initiative in Brazil teaching the latter to vulnerable populations). We want to close the gender gap in IT as well as bring more diversity to the sector. In addition to the coding bootcamps, Reprograma carries out technical events (both face-to-face and online) where all speakers are female. These include technical monthly meetups with Reprograma alumni, Tech Talks held every November and bi-annual “Hackatonas” or Female Programming Competitions where all participants are women. Over the past three years Reprograma has implemented both face-to-face and online programs to train women into becoming programmers, giving them also the soft skills training necessary to better succeed at landing a job as software developers as soon as they graduate from the program. To date we have implemented a total of 22 bootcamps both face-to-face and online, graduating close to 700 women with a completion rate of 95%. Eighty four percent of our graduates get a job in tech 6 months post graduation with an average starting salary of R$ 4,900 (around USD 1,200 at the time of graduation). Even though the face-to-face offer has had great results on employment and income, this modality is not easily scalable. Moreover, with the Covid-19 pandemic, this format has been suspended as the students cannot attend the training centers and has been replaced by online modality, running successfully . On the other hand, while the online format has a greater potential for scale (and is the only possible format under the current circumstances), up until now this offer did not include as an explicit objective the impact on job placement and on incomes of women coders. The online bootcamps have allowed Reprograma to test whether it was possible to reach, engage and teach coding to vulnerable women virtually, giving them access to a large online support network (technical and female). This year we have extend our online course duration following the success of our face-to-face curriculum, to better prepare students technically and with soft skills and to ensure good employability outcomes. We are partnering with a regional development bank and local partners to develop a fully online hiring platform that brings together companies and women coders and helps us place our graduates in jobs, and are looking for financial support to leverage these funds.