By | JA Americas
The ‘She is Digital’ project from Junior Achievement Americas has proven to be an inspiring and transformative resource for hundreds of women in the region. The program, which has already trained 2,280 women, aims to train 7,500 by 2025, with a commitment of 40% employability of its graduates.
It combines soft and technical skills training with the goal of empowering women and contributes to reducing the gender gap in digital literacy and the technology industry. Participants are trained in soft skills such as leadership, financial autonomy and women’s empowerment, and furthermore, in the technical area they receive training in one of these two sectors: Cybersecurity or Web Development + Cloud Computing. At the conclusion of the program they have the opportunity to be certified by partners such as Amazon Web Services and Cisco Networking Academy.
In Latin America, the entry of young people into the labor market is marked by high rates of unemployment and informality; in the case of women, who are often involved in care and household tasks, the problem is even more serious. Technical training, along with certifications and social-emotional skills that improve young women’s chances of finding employment or self-employment, opens up a new range of possibilities. Such is the case of María José Quirós, a 29-year-old Costa Rican single mother, who recently became certified in Cybersecurity and is near completion of the program. María José describes Mujer Digital as an educational and personal experience that pushed her to step out of her comfort zone and face new challenges. “It made me explore new paths and dare to take the first step, to not stay stagnant,” reflects María José on her transformation.
She shares her perspective on the future: “My expectation is to have a stable job, and why not dream big and continue acquiring knowledge, and then open a company dedicated to computer security,” she expresses with determination.
When we involve young people in educational experiences that involve entrepreneurial skills, they begin to know themselves better, they grow in the management of skills, tools and instruments, and above all they develop in them what we call an “entrepreneurial attitude”. This attitude has a lot to do with confidence and a sense of possibility that allows them to project themselves into the future and believe they are “capable of”.
Young people need to develop cognitive and social-emotional skills to reach their full potential. Our role as adults is to show them possible paths, to encourage them to follow them and to accompany them in the endeavor. Stimulating an entrepreneurial attitude is fundamental for young people to feel capable of imagining and creating their own path, contributing to the well-being of their families and communities.
More than 7,500 women will benefit from this program over two years of implementation in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Mujer Digital is a training and employability initiative developed by Junior Achievement Americas, in collaboration with Bib-Lab and with the support of various partners such as CABEI, Caterpillar Foundation, Delta, IBM, Cisco Networking Academy, AWS, and Neoris, among others.
For more information about Mujer Digital visit the website https://jamujerdigital.org/¿
