JP Morgan, Endeavor Colombia, Corporacion Las Mercedes Team-up on IT Development

U.S.-based JP Morgan Chase Foundation, entrepreneurship developer Endeavor Colombia and Colombia-based educational institute Corporation Las Mercedes jointly announced April 21 that they’re teaming-up on a new program that will train 130 local information technology (IT) programmers and software developers.

 “The three non-profit organizations share a mission to impact economic and social development” in Colombia, according to the groups, citing their new “Enterprise Tech” training project.

Endeavor Colombia has operations in Medellin, Bogota and Barranquilla, recently organized the Global Entreprenuership Conference in Medellin, and cosponsored a study on the need for more “angel investors” for local IT start-ups (see Medellin Herald on February 5, 2016, and February 15, 2016).

The “Enterprise Tech” training program emerged “to solve one of the main challenges now facing the [IT] industry in Colombia: the worrysome lack of trained programming and software-development talent,” according to the organizations.

“Today, entrepreneurs and technology companies face a big barrier: access to trained personnel, which prevents and limits growth. Initiatives like this would help avoid a foreseen problem that by 2018, Colombia would have a shortage of about 93,000 professionals in programming,” according to the groups.

The new program — operated by Corporation Las Mercedes — will provide 800 hours of market-oriented IT training to 130 Colombians over 10 months.

Upon completing their studies, “these young people will have access to job opportunities in the Endeavor companies operating in the IT sector who are looking to hire more than 120 people during 2016,” according to the organizations.

Thanks to this project, Endeavor Colombia aims to accelerate the development of 15 new IT start-ups in Colombia, according to the organization.

“With this initiative, we seek to solve a latent problem for Endeavor entrepreneurs operating in the IT industry: difficulty to find and retain skilled talent in the country,” added Endeavor Colombia executive director Adriana Suárez.