<HolaCode/> (HolaEdtech SAPI SA de CV)

The number of migrants in Mexico is increasing: every year, around 190,000(2019) Mexicans are deported from the US and +70,000 refugees continue arriving into our country every year. Migrants/refugees are young, resilient with transferable skills and social remittances (they’re bilingual/bicultural). There are no integration programs in Mexico, and migrants face numerous obstacles, which end up trapping them in poverty:  1)They can’t attend higher education 2)Exclusion from the formal labour market 3)No access to loans/bank accounts 4) They don’t have a social/professional network in the country. 

Our solution: 5-month immersive programme with 3 curricula: Software Engineering, Leadership, and Financial Ed for financial inclusion. Our graduates to achieve social mobility. 

Although the tech sector in Mexico is booming, local companies are scrambling to find skilled, English-speaking software developers. At the same time, the number of forced migrants in Mexico is skyrocketing: every year, around 190,000 Mexicans are deported from the US and many more decide to return voluntarily (no institution keeps track of the number). Mexico has also seen a staggering jump in asylum seekers +70,000 per year. These migrants/refugees are young, resilient, ambitious, independent, with transferable skills and social remittances (they’re bilingual/bicultural). Nevertheless, there are no integration programs in Mexico, and migrants face numerous obstacles, which end up trapping them in poverty:  1)They can’t get access to higher education (they can’t revalidate their foreign studies); 2)Exclusion from the formal labour market (due to discrimination and lack of their Mexican degree); 3)No access to loans/bank accounts (due to a lack of credit history); 4) They don’t have a social/professional network in the country.

Holacode’s innovative solution hacks obstacles for forced migrants while fostering a more diverse and successful tech sector in LATAM. Admissions: Prior studies and tech experience are not required. We look for potential tech talent: logical thinking, attention to detail, and strong reading comprehension. Educational Model:5-month immersive program, cohort 4 will be online, Mon-Fri, 8am-8pm, with 3 curricula for success: A)Software Engineering Powered by Hack Reactor/Galvanize-we take students from 0 to full stack software engineers. B)Leadership: Learning tools that foster autonomy, communication skills, and critical thinking. C)Wellness: socio-emotional tools to help students integrate, build social capital, and plan for the future. Student Services: A)Deferred tuition; B)Daycare. Financial Inclusion: Students open a bank account in Mexico through a partnership with Santander. HC provides access to student loans. High-Demand Job Placement: We connect students to tech careers with our 150 hiring partners.

Migrants and Refugees: Young forced migrants (returnees, deportees and refugees), ages 18-35. They bring social remittances (they’re bilingual and bicultural) and transferable skills (many have sales or customer service experience), and they are hungry for opportunities. Resilient, hardworking, they are eager to build a life and career in a new country. Migrants and refugees are infamously high-performing and entrepreneurial. Through our programme, we create a long term integration solution that creates an impact in people's lives by enabling social mobility and financial inclusion condensed into four main levels: 1) Education in Technology, 2) Access to high demand jobs, 3) Social Mobility/ Salary Increase and 4)Access to Financial Services.

On the other side, in the Mexican Tech Sector: There is a need for developers focused on DevOps, Data Science, and Machine Learning across Latam. Additionally, Holacode caters such market in Latin America, since data figures show that JavaScript, HTML, and CSS are the most commonly used programming/scripting/markup languages.

Holacode’s design comes from academic research that allowed the founders to understand the specific needs and pains of the migrant communities in Mexico. Moreover, Holacode was built based on participatory approaches with the support od grassroots organisations and the migrant community that validated the project. Through our social impact assessment, counselling services, and student’s assemblies we keep identifying obstacles that Holacode students face during the programme. Through our partnerships with NGO’s and International Organisations, we refer them for additional services otherwise not available in Holacode.

We work with underrepresented communities that generally are excluded from digital connectivity at its full capacity. As a result of high levels of inequality, migrants and refugees have been excluded from the creation of technology. For example, Mexico has a big digital divide. As far as fixed broadband internet access goes, Mexico has 13.9 lines per 100 inhabitants; this is less than 1/2 of the average lines per 100 inhabitants of OECD countries, which is 30.4. In Holacode we have built strong partnerships to bring our communities access to digital infrastructure and safe, affordable internet.

Holacode is in a growth stage. In 2017, we opened our doors and we run a pilot with 22 graduates and 90% of job insertion rate and clear validation of its effectiveness. In 2021, we have graduated 70 students and we aim to open two running cohorts with a graduation rate of  100 people per year.

Our innovative solution hacks obstacles for forced migrants while fostering a diverse and successful tech sector in LATAM. Admissions: Prior studies and tech experience are not required. We look for potential tech talent: logical thinking, attention to detail, and strong reading comprehension. Educational Model: 5-month immersive program. Curricula: A)Software Engineering by Hack Reactor/Galvanize). B)Leadership: tools that foster autonomy, communication skills, critical thinking. C)Wellness. 

The most innovative side of Holacode is that we are the only programme in LATAM that fosters social mobility (often difficult to achieve) via Edtech in a very short period of time. Moreover, we bet against traditional education models by reducing time and resources to achieve job insertion and access to high-demand jobs.

Actually serving: 70 graduates + 87 relatives aprox

In one year: 50 graduates + 60 relatives aprox

In 5 years: 450 graduates + 540 relatives

We administer a student social impact assessment at the beginning of each cohort and another one six months after graduation. We also measure our impact via personalized follow-ups with students and hiring partners. Since our program entails truly in-depth impact, we signed up for a "Leading with Data" course with LeFil Consulting so that we can learn more about measuring our impact. 

Currently, we are using the following indicators to assess our impact: 

EDUCATION INDICATORS

• Number of migrants without prior tech experience who graduate as full-stack software engineers every year. 

• Program retention rate. 

FINANCIAL INCLUSION INDICATORS 

• Percent of students who obtain bank accounts. 

• Percent of students who obtain access to educational loans.

• Percent of students who receive a cash transfer. 

CAREER & INCOME INDICATORS 

• Percent of alumni who obtain jobs as software developers.

• Average additional income earned (pre-Holacode income vs. post-Holacode income).

• Percent of graduates who obtain jobs where they earn over $1,000 USD (20,000 MXN per month, launching them into the top 1.7% in Mexico in terms of income).

• Our graduates’ job retention rate. 

INTEGRATION INDICATORS 

• How integrated students feel in Mexico pre- vs. post-Holacode.

• How students feel about their access to opportunities in Mexico pre- and post-Holacode. 

• How students feel about their community and if they feel like they belong (pre- and post-Holacode).  

• How students feel about their identities (pre- and post-Holacode). 

Full time staff: 6

We are an interdisciplinary team with strong backgrounds in Tech, Finance/Business and Social Sciences.

Aida Chávez, co-CEO 

International Migration specialist focused on returnees and refugees. Ten years of relevant experience in public policy and development programs for migrant communities and startups.

Aída holds a BA in Political Science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She was granted the Chevening Scholarship to pursue a MA in Migration Studies at the University of Sussex, UK. Furthermore, she has two years of relevant experience in education with special focus in pedagogy.

Diana Izquierdo, co-CEO 

Accumulated experience analyzing the financial and operational situation in different sectors and industries, from having worked in big companies like Chrysler and Dupont, as well as in startups and entrepreneurial projects. She works with the day to day execution and creates strategies according to the company’s main objectives.

Diana has a MA in International Business and Negotiation at the ESC Rennes School of Business, France and a BA in Financial Management at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico City.

Cornellius Ngondo, Tech Lead

Cornellius is a software engineer and mentor. He received a BA in Mathematics and Computer Science from Multimedia University of Kenya. He worked at Moringa School, a prominent coding boot camp based in Kenya, where he managed to train over 100 graduates in web and mobile apps. He made relevant contributions to their curriculum. Moreover, he represented his organization in prominent developer conferences such as Africa Women in Tech and Google Developer Group Meetups.

After a Gender Based Analysis, the company runs a Diversity and Inclusive initiative with the following results as for 2020: Female presence in the team of 50%, Women in leadership positions 66.67%, Gap between women and men salaries 9% and women rotation due to salary reasons 0%.

Holacode is a diverse team led by two Mexican women in tech, and the tech team is conformed by the  Tech Lead from Kenya and the Tech Mentors who are Holacode graduates who are returned migrants.

Moreover, with support from LeFil Consulting, a Swiss firm that that helps start-ups, Holacode participated in the gender-mainstreaming training, to reduce gender biases.

We apply to Solve because we have a business model that needs a boost to be able to reach and better serve the target we focus on.

It is a unique community, full of potential talent, resilience, strength and above all the desire to give a 180 degree change to their life.

One of the barriers that we want to solve is the restricted and limited access that this community has to the financial institutions on which its access to credits and loans that they may need to improve their quality of life depends, one simple example is our bootcamp. Our students need to ask for a loan so they can pay the bootcamp, and then as they graduate and get a job, they start paying their loan to these financial institutions. 

Business model: We need mentorship to make a diagnosis to become the hot nest of software developers for companies. We need to know and understand their human resources and technical needs to offer them the optimal service.

Public Relations: We need mentorship to sculpt the message that best represents the brand and that could let us find companies interested in becoming part of our impact. As well as media relations to increase the visibility of that message and find partners interested in spreading our mission to the migrant’s community.

BUSINESS MODEL

• User research

• Quick prototype and validation

• Experience development

• Business design

Solve Members:

The Hague Business Agency

Oliver Wyman Group

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Sculpting the message that best represents the brand and increasing the visibility of that message.

Mentorship: ND

Partners: Comcast NBCUniversal, Solve Member

Cohort 4 is set to start on July 2021 in a 100% online environment. This is in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and is a practice we have become accustomed to since March 2020. By 2021, Holacode expects to reach the important objective of having refugees comprise 40% of the total student body. Additionally, the online educational environment will allow us to include migrants and refugees based outside of Mexico City to also participate in our programme. As such, Cohort 4 will enjoy wider participation from students across the country.  

The Solution: Holacode is powered by Hack Reactor/Galvanize, one of the most highly regarded boot camps in the United States. Designed in Silicon Valley, Hack Reactor created a successful curriculum that has shifted the professional career of thousands of students in the U.S. In Mexico, Holacode is the only place to have access to their curriculum. 

Holacode would like to make use of the money in four main categories: $20,000 USD for the Hack Reactor/Galvanize license. Around $35,594 USD for Community Building in response to Covid-19 pandemic (wifi devices and equipment; workshops, communication specialist and other tools) and $42,366 USD for personnel focused in Education. Also, we are adding the administrative costs for attestation and official translations of legal documents equivalent to $2,040 USD, approximately. 

Cohort 4 is set to start on July 2021 in a 100% online environment. This is in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and is a practice we have become accustomed to since March 2020. By 2021, Holacode expects to reach the important objective of having refugees comprise 40% of the total student body. Additionally, the online educational environment will allow us to include migrants and refugees based outside of Mexico City to also participate in our programme. As such, Cohort 4 will enjoy wider participation from students across the country.  

The Solution: Holacode is powered by Hack Reactor/Galvanize, one of the most highly regarded boot camps in the United States. Designed in Silicon Valley, Hack Reactor created a successful curriculum that has shifted the professional career of thousands of students in the U.S. In Mexico, Holacode is the only place to have access to their curriculum. 

Holacode would like to make use of the money in four main categories: $20,000 USD for the Hack Reactor/Galvanize license. Around $35,594 USD for Community Building in response to Covid-19 pandemic (wifi devices and equipment; workshops, communication specialist and other tools) and $42,366 USD for personnel focused in Education. Also, we are adding the administrative costs for attestation and official translations of legal documents equivalent to $2,040 USD, approximately.