On July 13, an event marked the end of the first class of 2022 of the Exponential Education program, a partnership between Instituto TIM and the NGO One By One, which works to include people with disabilities in Rio de Janeiro. The initiative aims to prepare for the job market by encouraging entrepreneurship skills and is aimed at children, teenagers and young people served by One By One and their families. At the closing event, the 35 participants presented a final project, developed during the program, in addition to the delivery of certificates.
Divided into six groups according to age group and profile, students participated in weekly remote classes accompanied by teachers and monitors. The mission was to create a company and develop a product: conceptualize an app and design the service, going through several steps until reaching the navigation of the interface. To reach this, they used several tools to create the brand, conduct consumer and market research, calculate the budget and create presentation material for the final project.
One of the companies conceived was Moon World, authored by the group of children aged 10 to 12 years. “It is an app that locates sports and leisure centers for people with disabilities”, explains Augusto da Silva Goulart David, 12 years old, member of the group. “It was great to participate in the Exponential Education program. I left my classes very happy. I could express my ideas, what I wanted to do and what I wanted to improve in the group. And I learned that the internet is not just for us to watch videos, it is also for work”, he says.
Another group, of young adults, created an app that locates job opportunities and offers free courses, focusing on diversity, including people with disabilities and LGBTQIA+. “The lack of jobs for young people in the market is very large. The idea is to keep them informed about opportunities and direct them. And today’s youth are tomorrow’s adults and they need education, opportunities, qualifications and open doors. There’s a lack in opportunity to show our potential.”, says Lavínia da Silva Lima, 18 years old, one of the group’s participants. Other renowned apps were a driver service for people with disabilities, a digital bank with financial education, a complaints handling for accessibility, and a service that locates NGOs to assist people with disabilities.
“The learning path was designed to take into account the technological changes in which we live. And the purpose is to go beyond training for the job market, but also to create autonomy and self-confidence in a playful and interactive way”, says Frances Tanure, coordinator of the program. She states, with the partnership with Instituto TIM, it was possible to scale the number of students and, thus, provide opportunities for more families. “It was the first time we had a class with this number of students. The program is an open door to a world of opportunities. From it, we started to direct them to other courses and we continue to follow each one until they get an opportunity in the job market”, she says. In August, a new class of the Exponential Education program begins.
