Programa Para o Futuro: Overview
Programa para o Futuro is a pilot employability and training project for disadvantaged youth in Recife, Brazil funded by USAID/Brazil. The following 5 NGOs are partnering to implement this project:
Academy for Educational Development (AED), Washington, D.C.;
Casa de Passagem, Recife, Pernambuco;
CDI-PE, Recife, Pernambuco;
LTNet-Brasil, Brasilia, Brazil; and
Porto Digital, Recife, Brazil.
This 18-month pilot project started in November, 2002 and includes three main phases:
A six-month planning period for curriculum development, training-of-trainers, establishing the training facility, selecting participating youth, orchestrating partnerships with government agencies, NGOs and private sector companies;
 
An eight-month training period where two groups of 25 disadvantage youth will engage in hands-on information technology (IT) training integrated with supplemental math, Portuguese and English education, targeted employability training and an on-line
e-mentoring activity; and
 
A four-month guided internship program where youth will gain their first formal employment and practice and enhance their IT and work place skills.
 
Programa para o Futuro has three mutually reinforcing goals.
1.
 Help disadvantaged young men and women gain an integrated mix of skills and abilities that will enable them to find meaningful employment as the first step to a carrier and new futures.
 
2.
 Design, test, and refine an integrated IT employability training program that can be replicated elsewhere in Brazil and locally sustained.
 
3.
 Contribute to efforts across Brazil to bridge the digital divide by enabling disadvantaged youth opportunities to learn to use computer and Internet technologies and share in the benefits afforded by these powerful tools.
 
 
The focus on preparing youth for entry level technical support jobs is based on expressed demand from the private sector, government agencies and NGOs. The project team believes that one of the key factors for success and sustainability is enabling youth to develop a solid mix of technical skills with a high demand in the market, and life and employability skills essential for becoming productive citizens.
 
Our aim is to provide a strong bridge between the youth’s potential and the market demand in an innovative, creative and professional environment. To achieve this, the program is creating and using a project-based approach based on practical problem solving and hands-on practice. To strengthen formal instruction, youth will be linked to e-mentors or IT professionals who will work with their youth via electronic communication mechanisms forming a robust professional network for IT and life long learning. This learning program will be strongly linked to perspective employers through face-to-face mentoring, site visits of youth to local companies, presentations by leaders in the business community at the training facility and a robust internship activity. All aspects of this integrated program will simulate the real-world work environment to reinforce professional skills development and make the learning more meaningful.
The Program Para o Futuro Project is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
and is conducted by the Academy for Educational Development (AED) and the dot-ORG program
under Cooperative Agreement No. 512-A-00-02-00017-00.