These are the 3 revolutionary projects in education of Udacity in Colombia to watch in 2019
- Miguel Uribe, candidate for mayor in Bogota (Colombia), wants to train 500.000 new coders using platforms like Udacity.
- The Ministry of Information Technology wants to train hundreds of people in artificial intelligence in Colombia using platforms like Udacity.
- The Ministry of Information Technology wants to pay for 50% of the cost for enterprise training programs in AI and technology in Colombian companies.
I have been working in collaboration with the business development, enterprise and scholarships teams in Udacity, since August 2018, in the development of big education programs in Colombia to revolutionize education and to help develop a big tech industry in the country.
We are working very hard on this and we have had dozens of meetings with important officials of the National Government, Senators and important officials of Bogota’s Government. This effort has created some big opportunities and projects in Colombia that I want to present to you. But before I begin, I want to give you some context of the current situation of Colombia´s education system.
Unfortunately, the education system in Colombia is very bad because even though the government expends a big amount of resources, around 5% of the GDP or 15 billion dollars per year in public education, the quality of the education is low. Most of this money is wasted in inefficient institutions or stolen by the people that work in the public education system.
I want to show you some facts that illustrate the inefficiency of the public education system in Colombia:
- 1 in 4 Colombians live in rural areas and people in rural areas have an average of education of 5.5 years, while people in urban areas have an average of education of 9.2 years. That means that approximately 12 million Colombians have an average of education of 5.5 years.
- In 2015 Colombia had 15 million people that were less than 18 years old and from this group of people, 5 million were outside of the education system.
This data is from the report of the Foundation “Fundación Empresarios Por la Educación” in Colombia: report
Miguel Uribe wants to train 500.000 new coders in Bogota using platforms like Udacity
Who is Miguel Uribe?
Miguel Uribe is a rising political star in Colombia and he is currently a candidate for mayor of Bogota. He was the Secretary of Government for Mayor Peñalosa, one of the most important urbanists worldwide. He has more than 10 years of experience working in the public sector in Bogota.
How will the program work?
Miguel wants to transform Bogota in the tech hub of LATAM, for that he wants to train 500.000 new coders in Bogota. Right now, Miguel and his team are working on the development of the proposal with Udacity and other external consultants.
We in Udacity are helping to develop the following proposals:
- Udacity Scholarships Bogota: There are going to be several programs for Bogota that are going to work very similarly to other Udacity scholarships programs in the United States, Nigeria, Egypt, and Asia. Each program is going to have 2 phases. The first phase is going to be an initial challenge were the students receive a 2 months course and complete a short project. Then, in the second phase, the top 5–10% of students are going to receive access for a Nanodegree (specialized online higher education course from Udacity). We expect to benefit between 10.000 to 500.000 people with this initiative.
- Enterprise training: In this program, the Government of Bogota is going to pay between 20% and 50% of the cost of an enterprise training program between a company in Bogota and innovative education companies like Udacity. These training programs need to be focused only on tech topics.
Launch date
2019–2020
Current status of the project
We are still working on the proposal.
The MinTIC wants to train hundreds of people in artificial intelligence in Colombia using platforms like Udacity
How will the program work?
The government of the new president of Colombia, Ivan Duque, wants to promote and grow what they call “Orange Economy”. The “Orange Economy” is composed of all the creative industries, from tourism and movies to the technology industry. Because of this, MinTIC (Ministry of Information Technology) wants to help Colombian companies to train their employees in all the new tech topics.
To achieve this, the national government is launching many programs to train people in tech topics. One of these programs is the “100 scholarships in Artificial Intelligence”. Now, the government is in the selection of the company or companies that are going to offer the education services for the scholarships. Udacity is one of the companies that is participating and that is in negotiations with the government. In this program, the government is going to select 100 people with the sufficient qualifications to complete the Nanodegrees (specialized online higher education course from Udacity) in artificial intelligence and is going to give them a special coupon that is going to allow each person to complete a Nanodegree for free.
Launch date
May 2019.
Current status of the project
The project is in development and being prepared for launch.
The MinTIC wants to pay for 50% of the cost of the enterprise training programs in AI and technology in Colombian companies
How will the program work?
The national government is launching a program on April 29th for enterprise training in tech. In this program, the government is going to pay for 50% of the cost of an enterprise training program between a company in Colombia and an innovative education company like Udacity. These training programs need to be focused only on tech topics. The companies that are interested need to apply through website talentoti.gov.co and submit their application. In the application, each company needs to apply with a defined partner that is going to offer the training program. We in Udacity are currently in the process of finding companies that want to participate and that want to partner with us in the application. For more information please visit this website:
https://www.talentoti.gov.co/635/w3-propertyvalue-14907.html
Launch date
April 29th, 2019.
Application deadline
May 28th, 2019.
Current status of the project
This program is currently active.
Do you want to contact me or help me in this project?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvaroandrespincor/?locale=en_US
