In the week of International Women’s Day, an opportunity fair promises to connect 10 young female talents, aged 14 to 18, to the job market. The initiative organized by the thematic group Mulheres ACATE, in partnership with the social project Prototipando a Quebrada (PAQ), will take place on March 9 and aims to strengthen the role of women and girls in the technology sector of Santa Catarina.

Currently, the Santa Catarina innovation ecosystem is the fourth largest in Brazil in number of employees (67,800 workers in 2019) and sixth in number of businesses (17,720 enterprises). However, when it comes to gender participation in the sector, less than half of employees (43%) and only 22.8% of all entrepreneurs are women. This is what the Tech Report 2021 points out — a study carried out by the Observatory of the Santa Catarina Technology Association (ACATE) and the company Neoway, with support from the Financier of Studies and Projects (Finep) .

The Opportunity Fair will be a space to give visibility to girls who are training and looking for their first job opportunity. The strategy is to allow PAQ students to apply for open internship and Minor Apprentice vacancies. Companies interested in having their work environments more diverse can contact Women ACATE until March 7, through the email women@acate.com.br.

In search of new talents

Technological-based companies in Santa Catarina are expected to open 16,612 new vacancies by 2023 and the growing demand for qualified professionals has been worrying public, private and third sector entities. There are not enough talents to meet the demand. Therefore, several initiatives have been mobilized to train people to fill these positions. One of them is Prototipando a Quebrada, a peripheral non-governmental organization that, since 2018, has been taking technological education to spaces of social sensitivity in Greater Florianópolis.

With more than 540 families impacted and 25 investors, the PAQ team wants, by the end of 2022, to help more than 100 young people from the outskirts of the capital through the training offered by the project. The expectation is that at least half will be inserted in the market.

To contribute to this process, the Women’s ACATE group offered professional mentorships to 10 selected adolescents throughout the month of February. The PAQ girls were also invited to prepare a presentation video and answer a technical challenge, which will be shown at the opportunity fair for partner companies.

“ Women ACATE, through its +Oportunidades committee, has precisely this objective of connecting these two important ends of the ecosystem, talents and companies, which perhaps would never connect organically. The purpose is to generate a change in the ecosystem of Santa Catarina ”, explains Bruna Sartori, vice-coordinator of the committee.

Cássia Liandra, the group’s events coordinator, adds that this fair represents a look to the future. “ It is the diversity that we seek so much to achieve, in the form of action. We want tech companies to see women and girls in a different light, and we hope these kinds of initiatives will spread across the state .”

#SouMulherACATE

The Opportunity Fair will be held within the #SouMulherACATE , a series of three events that will be held in 2022. The first, on March 9th, celebrates International Women’s Day and brings discussions around important topics of contemporary female life: behavior, development and networking.

“ Santa Catarina is recognized for having a reference ecosystem in our country. We want to show how well prepared we are when it comes to the female presence in the world of technology ”, says Betina Zanetti, director of Mulheres ACATE. “ This is our way of celebrating International Women’s Day: to inspire and engage more women in the tech sector, where great job opportunities will be in the future .”

In the program, the PAQ girls will have a space of 30 minutes to present their work and, soon after, they will be available to companies that want to talk about vacancies.

#SouMulherACATE will be broadcast live on ACATE ‘s YouTube channel. Registration can be done here . The event has the support of the Florianópolis City Hall, the Innovation Network and the Foundation for Support to Research and Innovation of the State of Santa Catarina (Fapesc).

About Women ACATE

Created in April 2018, the thematic group Mulheres ACATE was born with the aim of strengthening the role of women in the tech universe and transforming the entrepreneurial culture, making the Santa Catarina ecosystem more egalitarian, fair, creative, innovative and diverse. Through monthly meetings, the group makes room for representation and plans actions that encourage younger generations to seek their spaces in technology.

Service

• Event: #SouMulherACATE
• Data: 09/03/2022
• Deadline for registration: 03/08/2022
• Value: free
• Location: ACATE Online / YouTube
• Link to schedule and registration : https://www.sympla.com.br/sou-mulher-acate__1477517