Educational quality: international certification

The Teacher Training program validated under the best international standards.

EduExcellence, an expert organization in global education located in Finland, formed by three important universities of applied sciences (Haaga-Helia, Laurea, Metropolia), carried out a quality audit and granted certification to the “Tu Mirada Transforma” Program, a special methodology created by Forge to train middle school teachers, with the aim that they can support the development of socio-emotional skills of their students. The ultimate goal is that more and more youths can find their best version while being supported by their teachers in school spaces.

“The Finnish educational model is recognized throughout the world for its excellence. For us it is a very important achievement to have obtained this certification in our pedagogical program. We are a Foundation that seeks excellence, innovation and on-going improvement. We are very proud of this objective achieved and we will continue to strengthen the bond between the two organizations”, commented Rodrigo Kon, Executive Director of the Forge Foundation.

The quality audit confirmed that the methodology developed by the Forge Foundation complies with the Finnish educational quality standards.

“We found the Program to be very well executed, with high quality interactive online content and an active community of practice. The program really keeps the promise of working alongside teachers on new tools and skills so they can build social-emotional skills in their classrooms,” said Jan-Markus Holm, CEO (interim) of EduExcellence.

“It was great working with the Forge Foundation Forge in Latin America and it was interesting to observe how professional the team is. The impact provided by socio-emotional training for teachers is world class” (Asko Mononen, Head of Audit and expert from the University of Lurea and Edu Excellence).

In 2021, the course was carried out in all countries. To date, more than 3,000 teachers have taken the course "Tu mirada Transforma" in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru and Mexico. To achieve this objective, we have worked together with relevant educational institutions, such as: the Ministry of Education of Peru, Plan Ceibal in Uruguay, CONALEP of Mexico, the Government of the City of Buenos Aires and Region 22 of the province of Buenos Aires in Argentina and several educational institutions in Chile.

In 2022 we plan to continue growing in scope with "Tu mirada Transforma" and launch new training proposals for teachers with the aim of strengthening youths’ skills and contributing significantly to the educational systems throughout the region.

Youth and technology

In 2021, we signed an agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to implement its re/Start program, providing it for free to economically vulnerable youths in the region.

The program is aimed at developing cloud computing skills to start a career in the technology industry. The Forge Foundation implemented the program from Chile, and it includes training in the development of core AWS Cloud tools, as well as practical professional skills such as job interviews and resumé writing with the aim of supporting students at job placement for entry positions in the Cloud. Additionally, the participants train their socio-emotional skills by going through the Forge Foundation course called “Tu Futuro”.

The program is implemented in a bootcamp format and prepares new talent for new careers in technology through exercises based on real situations, practical laboratories and courses. Students learn about Linux, Python, networking, security, and databases.

In addition, and to validate their cloud skills, the program grants the students free access to take the exam leading to the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification. After passing the exam, youths will be prepared to perform roles in operations, site reliability, and infrastructure support.

“The cloud may sound like something distant or unknown, but it is much closer than what we think. Streaming services, video games, video calls and many business processes today work in the cloud. Being trained in this area may be an opportunity to start a career with great projection. The call is for youths with or without previous knowledge and especially for women, as there is a great need to incorporate them to the industry,” said Francisco Ruiz, Director of The Forge Foundation Chile.

“The industry demand for cloud adoption is far outpacing the number of new cloud-savvy workers, making it difficult for companies to hire the talent needed to implement cloud services. To overcome this supply and demand challenge, we need to help people from different backgrounds train themselves to start a career in the cloud. AWS re/Start brings a new talent pool to the workforce by training people with no technology experience to start a career in the field,” explains Tejas Vashi, AWS re/Start Global Leader.

During 2021, 2 courses were implemented in Chile (and another 2 multi-country courses in which youths from Peru, Mexico, Chile and Colombia shared the process, adding multiculturalism as an additional asset to the technical and socio-emotional training provided by the joint program.

In 2022 we plan to make this experience grow for the benefit of more youths throughout the region.

Fully updated program

We know that the digital transformation is not an event that ends one day but rather a process of constant learning and on-going improvement to provide youths with the best proposal, and thus, achieve the greatest possible impact.

The context is changing, startups, tools and technologies are constantly emerging. The successive generations of youths express new needs and learn from innovation itself, to adjust and improve.

Forge started 2020 with the decision to transform its face-to-face program into a digital proposal. In that same year, we generated the first version of “Tu Futuro”, which we launched in a 100% virtual format in all the countries in which we operated, with excellent results.

Thus, we confirm that the transmission of socio-emotional skills in an online format is not only possible, but also a very powerful channel that provides great possibilities to scale and opens opportunities to more people, who in other formats would not be able to access the program, either because of geographic location, economic difficulties, or home care obligations.

At the end of 2020 we carried out an evaluation of that first experience and with the lessons learned, in 2021 we developed a new version of the program. During the year, more than 10,000 youths went through the experience.

Tu Futuro 2.0 was an optimized version of the proposal, which included among other improvements:

- The creation of the Virtual Campus, in which youths carry out online challenges that enhance their learning, with the support of Forge facilitators.

- We made adjustments and improvements to the pedagogical contents, which deepen the development of key skills, such as autonomy, achievement orientation, time management, problem solving, critical thinking and creativity.

- Improvements to the Level structure that youths go through, which without putting aside the common narrative, now they have more independence and can also be used as a specific resource to work on certain concepts.

- The renewal of the Look & Feel of the proposal.

- The incorporation of digital certificates, based on blockchain technology that youths receive and can share on employment platforms and social networks.

- Improvements to the dissemination and registration process with the incorporation of more technology so that those who apply to the program can know the status of the process in which they are through a track landing, and find automated answers to frequently asked questions through a bot.

All the teams were trained to be able to carry out this new proposal that was implemented in Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay during 2021.

The results of this new version, in terms of learning, permanence and motivation of youths, have been very good and encourage us to continue exploring this path in 2022, to have an even greater and deeper impact.

Geographical expansion

In 2021 Forge started operations in a new country! With the support of the Zurich Foundation, “Tu Futuro” program was offered to almost 200 youths in Colombia, in a 100% virtual format.

In addition, a group of young girls and boys from that country joined the cloud programming courses developed together with Amazon Web Services during the second half of the year.

The program had an excellent reception among the participants. “I signed up for this course as I thought it would be a great possibility for my future. Now I have more opportunities for people to see what I am capable of doing and the skills I have developed with my effort and with the support of Forge” says Sahory, a participant of the program.

The successful implementation of the program in Colombia is a very important milestone for Forge, because it confirms the course of the digital transformation strategy carried out in the recent years. The online format allowed us to reach this new territory quickly, effectively and efficiently, implementing the program with a team of experts from Forge Peru, and overcoming the difficulties imposed by the pandemic without giving up quality in our impact.

The experience allowed us to verify once again that the Forge model is easy to export, without the need of structural changes to adapt to different contexts.

In 2022 we plan to increase our scope in Colombia to reach more youths and accompany their incorporation to the labor market, promoting their educational continuity and their commitment to solidarity.

Measurement of skills using disruptive technology

Forge launched its first video game! Trip: an adventure of self-knowledge.

We are convinced that the world of gaming has much to offer for the transmission and evaluation of skills and competencies. In 2021 we decided to develop our first video game and we succeeded: Trip was created!.

Based on solid traditional psychometric techniques, we designed challenges that youths can go through from their mobile phone, PC or Tablet. The player is immersed in a virtual context, in which he/she goes on a trip to an unknown tourist destination. There he/she will find other people with whom he/she will interact and will take several excursions, in which he/she will put his/her skills at play.

Behind the challenges there are tests of logical skills, personality and projective techniques that at the end make a report that allows each youth to get to know himself/herself better.

We have tested the game with youths from Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay during the last part of the year, with very good results. In 2022 we will extend its use to all youths who use our job placement tools. We will also make it available to the teachers of public education so that they can use it in the classroom with their students.

This is the first step of a path that we plan to deepen, to create gamified, scalable, fun, motivating and powerful formats to transmit and evaluate skills throughout Latin America.