Mexican Business Sector Creates Room for Youth Employability

The Mexican business sector has reaffirmed its commitment to promote youth employability through active participation in co-forming a consolidated quality education system in the country. AT&T, Intel, BBVA, and Microsoft reinforce this tendency by recently developing educational programs in Mexico. 

Companies across the country have either collaborated with educational institutes or created initiatives to promote quality education aiming to producing job opportunities Mexico´s talented youth. Microsoft, BBVA, AT&T, and Intel recently contributed to their company’s Social Dimension by generating educational programs through different projects in the country.

Microsoft and BBVA Mexico Foundation

The Business Coordinating Council (CCE) and Global Compact Network Mexico launched SDG4 Classroom in collaboration with BBVA Mexico Foundation, Microsoft, and Construyendo y Creciendo, a non-profit organization that services quality education to construction workers.

The SDG4 Classroom initiative aims to train and certify young people by facilitating access to formal education while providing technology and human development workshops. 

The training will boost digital skills and offer mentoring courses to create employability opportunities for young people in Mexico. This initiative goes hand-in-hand with the Education 2030 Agenda, which establishes a movement for a global commitment to guarantee universal education.  

"Education is the basis for the development of any society and considered a high priority for the CCE. From the business community, it is essential to demonstrate our Social Dimension in this relevant issue, especially when it comes to promoting formal education and training for decent employment. That is why this great project is so important,” said Odracir Barquera, General Director of Planning at CCE. 

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Philanthropies Lead, Lupina Loperena, talked about what will be the company’s role within the initiative at the launch of SDG4 Classroom.

"At Microsoft, we are committed to training students for free, providing them with certification in areas such as technology, digital skills, and human development, as well as providing them with mentoring for employability and thus, helping them to be much more competitive and better at facing the challenges of the digital present and future,” said Loperena. 

On the other hand, BBVA Mexico Foundation will advise students to outline a career plan by developing skills for the workplace, job interviews, and budget management while promoting emotional self-care, as the company identifies accompaniment as a key element to achieve inclusion. The follow-up process is led by volunteers who share their experience and advice to students through a 15-year teaching methodology approved by BBVA Mexico Foundation.

The SDG4 Classroom initiative is led by 2030 Agenda Work Groups. These groups emerge from the private initiative to execute actions that boost the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the framework of the agreement signed in 2019 by CCE, Global Compact Network Mexico, and the Mexican Federal Government. 

The Work Groups seek to implement corporate actions to fulfill the 2030 Agenda, while simultaneously establishing collaborative spaces to transfer experience and knowledge to the corporate community. 

AT&T Mexico and ITESO

The Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO) and AT&T Mexico recently signed an agreement that will provide students at the Guadalajara-based Jesuit university, an opportunity for interns to enroll in professional internships at the world’s largest telecommunications company. 

The agreement also includes the possibility for AT&T Mexico´s employees to have access to courses, certificates, enroll in postgraduate courses, and English classes offered by ITESO. This is due to the necessity to complement the employees' professional training, while the company has also agreed to collaborate in social projects in which the university participates.

"At AT&T Mexico we believe education is the main driver for opportunities and we seek to promote it among young people. We are convinced that if we have more and better-prepared professionals, the country will become stronger and there will be greater growth," said Francisco Peraire, Vice-president and General Director of AT&T Mexico for the Pacific Region.

Intel and ITESO

Seeking to reduce a 400-engineer shortage to cover Intel’s daily operations, the technology company has worked with ITESO to offer a joint certificate that aims to train graduates from all over the country to the company’s standards and provide them with stable jobs.

So far, more than 44 students  that specialize in electronics and computer systems have received free training to be recruited to work at Intel, a microprocessor developer. This American multinational, which is part of the electronic industry in Guadalajara with their Guadalajara Design Center (GDC), expects to cover their 400-engineer shortage through this educational program.

As Intel will be covering all expenses, students have to commit full-time to their 296-hour intensive program. Two hundred hours will be dedicated to reinforcing technical issues, while 64 hours are destined for students to take English classes. The 32 remaining hours will be used to learn soft skills. 

José Luis Pizano Escalante, the coordinator of the certificate and an academic of the Department of Electronics, Systems, and Informatics (DESI) at ITESO, believes this initiative is an opportunity to change the professional and personal lives of those who will receive the training. 

"Unfortunately, if we look at the universities we have in Jalisco and in the west, there are not many that offer the profile required by Intel, especially in the technical areas […] there is a lot of talent in Jalisco but there is a lack of specialization, [and this certificate] makes it viable and attractive for companies," said Pizano. 

The initiative to help students connect with work opportunities that Intel and ITESO identified, has been previously discussed by Daniel Chávez, CEO at Dextra Technologies. 

In an interview to MBN, Chávez was asked how could Mexico strengthen the capabilities of its software engineers. The expert said it was important to link the business sector with universities, while having government support to encourage Mexican software companies to keep training their engineers. 

“You have to work with universities. One area where I believe there is a lack of investment is embedded software engineering. The country has many fronts- and back-end engineers, but few graduates focused on this area. Tecnológico de Monterrey, for example, has invested a great deal in software for automotive applications. This includes artificial intelligence and machine learning, which is going to be a central part of the coming revolution of automated driver assistance. Another aspect is government support like India had at some point. This is necessary to encourage Mexican software companies to continue training engineers,” Chávez told MBN.