Venezuela: Inspiring Young Women to Become Tech Entrepreneurs
What country?
Venezuela
Who for?
Young women aged between 14 and 18
What action?
Over the coming years, many new jobs will be created by the tech industry. These new jobs must be accessible to both young men and women. Personal mentoring is paramount, and training is essential.
Since 2019, TotalEnergies Venezuela, along with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Venezuela, supports the Technovation Girls Venezuela initiative, a global competition around technological entrepreneurship. This initiative is locally implemented by the NGO Impact Hub Caracas. It's a prime opportunity for girls from less favored neighborhoods to acquire the skills they need to become future entrepreneurs in the digital sector.
The idea is for young women to design and implement digital solutions to problems in their local communities, such as waste management and access to energy resources. Each solution must meet one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
In 2020, 12 young women divided into four teams, were selected to represent Venezuela in the worldwide Technovation Girls competition, which brings together 62 countries.
Nearly 68 young women from two neighborhoods in Caracas participated, this year, beforehand in a program to acquire training in digital technology (web development, data, information culture, etc.) and professional skills (problem solving, critical thinking, innovation and creativity, etc.). During lockdown, by using computer equipment provided with support from TotalEnergies, they were able to continue their training remotely and preparing for the competition selection tests.
What impacts?
Over the past two years, 130 girls have participated in this innovative digital entrepreneurship training program. 8 mobile applications have been developed and one has won the Latin American regional prize in 2019.