Poverty can hide many talents, perpetuating its own cycle and keeping those who are less privileged from realizing their potential. With that in mind, Avanade has partnered with Meu Futuro Digital to create a digital ecosystem to transform Brazil into a country that builds the future of work and education through information technology.

Meu Futuro Digital (or My Digital Future) is a non-profit organization that brings together an ecosystem of companies to enable and empower young people in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). The organization promotes greater inclusion through training, mentoring and high-income employment in IT in Brazil.

Through this partnership, the two organizations will develop programs in Recife to train young people for careers in information technology, while promoting initiatives for social and gender inclusion and expanding relationships with public and private universities.

"Our purpose at Avanade is to generate human impact,” said Fabio Hasegawa, General Manager, Avanade Brazil. “It is fundamental to scale diverse talents to genuinely deliver value to our clients, our people and the communities we live in. Our joint initiatives with Meu Futuro Digital enable us to support young people fast start their careers, provide them more equal access to opportunities, and create a more inclusive workforce in the technology sector.”

According to one report, only 17% of Brazilian graduates have degrees in STEM areas, while the average in developed nations is 24%. The joint initiatives between Avanade and Meu Futuro Digital will provide mentoring projects, free online courses and access to recruitment programs, and efforts to foster knowledge about the IT market and its opportunities. Through these programs, the hope is to close that gap in Brazil, as the information technology sector is one of the fastest-growing areas in the world and depends on qualified personnel.

"One of the values of Meu Futuro Digital is to believe in the development of young people in the job market, to make space and opportunity for those who never thought of working with technology, innovation, mathematics and engineering,” explained Rubem Duek, co-founder and CEO of Meu Futuro Digital. “This partnership with Avanade comes to strengthen our digital ecosystem.”

One of Meu Futuro Digital’s goals is to double the qualified workforce in information technology from 1.5 to 3 million professionals in the next eight years – an effort that Avanade is eager to advance, especially given our citizenship mission to inspire young people through the power of our people and digital innovation.

“As a father and human being living in a society that still has immense gaps, these initiatives are extremely close to my heart,” Fabio added. “I look forward to the positive impact that Avanade and our amazing team can make with Meu Futuro Digital."