Providing Automation Skills to the Latin Community’s Future Workforce

Introduction

UiPath Community supports Latin American students by providing them with the infrastructure needed to learn robotic process automation development skills in partnership with the Dream to Succeed Foundation.

Empowering the future workforce with automation skills

UiPath, the leading enterprise automation software company, envisions an automated and productive working environment in which the day to day work isn't defined by repetitive tasks. This way the focus moves towards more strategic, creative, and tactical work. Today, technical and business professionals are more successful when equipped with the skills and expertise to identify processes that should be automated. The demand for RPA skills creates an opportunity for talented students across the world. Working with leading universities, and other public and private educational organizations, UiPath is working on developing a global RPA knowledge ecosystem. The aim is to shape the future of work through an inclusive community ranging from young students to experienced professionals. UiPath Community offers the opportunity for people to learn new skills and achieve employment opportunities by being part of an emerging and innovative technology movement.  The success of Hispanic students in public schools is crucial to all American countries.

A recent USA Today News article identified that Latino students would make up nearly 30% of all U.S. public-school enrollment by the end of the decade. Today's Latino students must be our priority because they'll shape our nation for generations to come. Training in Spanish is becoming even more important as we look to address the needs of all our growing number of students. How are schools preparing for them? Can they do it alone? As technology evolves, so must the skill set of the workforce working with these new tools. The education sector is undergoing an evolution as conventional teaching methods are experiencing a major shift towards student-centric learning.

Educational technology (EdTech) is the "combined use of computer technology and educational theory and practice to facilitate student learning." "It creates, uses, and manages engineering processes and educational resources to facilitate learning and academic performance. AI and robotics will act as key enablers for outcome-based performance". (Kayla Jimenez, USA TODAY NEWS, Oct. 11, 2022).  As a result, the global virtual classroom infrastructure market is expected to reach $58.9 billion by 2027. 

This opens the door for global technology leaders to help set the stage by working with universities, governments and educational organizations to supply them with new ways to learn about current business developments. 

Automation for Good benefits all

Dream to Succeed helps to develop and empower Latin American professionals to become tomorrow's leaders and entrepreneurs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and business. RPA is a skill that is rapidly growing in Latin America. By providing RPA skill training for free, students can enter a relatively new job market with the promise of working collaboratively with local business sponsors. Businesses benefit from having RPA expertise available in their community and local languages. In 2021, the UiPath Community saw the opportunity to partner with the Dream to Succeed foundation to provide Spanish-speaking students free, self-paced training in Spanish via a pilot program. The pilot program offered a semester-long curriculum that equiped students with the knowledge needed to become RPA certified. 

Grassroots initiatives may start small, yet can be mighty

We believe in Automation for Good, so when Dream to Succeed approached us to support schools in Latin America, we replied with a hearty, "of course we will." UiPath provides free training as part of our basic corporate mission to train individuals so they can become certified in RPA. UiPath Community and UiPath Academic Alliance teams partnered with a highly skilled Spanish-speaking UiPath Community Most Valuable Professional (MVP) to build the program structure and kick off the pilot. Students were selected and invited to a kickoff event and received an introduction to RPA is and how it can be used. Students were enrolled in a pre-selected Spanish self-paced curriculum and provided access to a learning environment. The UiPath team provides ongoing open office hours and periodic checks with the staff of the universities to remove any obstacles that they experience. 

The pilot program started with two universities, Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería Nicaragua and Institución Universitaria ITSA. To date, 40 students have completed their training in the program and will become certified in the next six months.Sara Nunez, CEO and founder of Dream to Succeed, is celebrating by hosting The Future of Work for Latin Community Event: Creating Equal Opportunities for All. The event takes place on October 26–27, 2022, to further the program in teaching RPA to students and to invite other industry leaders to advantage Latino youth by providing curriculums in additional areas of IT for students to learn. UiPath is sponsoring the event, along with other industry leaders, to empower the audience with knowledge on technologies students should be aware of when identifying career choices. 

Conclusion

Sara Nunez thanked UiPath by stating, "UiPath has not just provided RPA skills to the students, they have provided something they needed even more, hope."  UiPath will continue to support this initiative and will seek other Automation for Good opportunities to prepare our global community with the skills that it needs to succeed in the 'automation first' era.