For the last two years, the Universidad Tecnológica (Utec) has been offering the Tecnicatura en Tecnologías de la Información, whose contents have the particularity of being offered 70% virtually, so only 30% of the instances of the career are face-to-face. The course lasts two years and is oriented towards technology adding value to public, private and civil society groups and organizations, and thus meeting their demands. The training areas of the offer are linked to the lines of development or programming, testing and technological infrastructure.
While passing the first year students obtain an intermediate qualification called "Certification in Application Development and Testing", those who complete the two years of training will obtain skills to develop and test small and medium-sized applications, with access to databases, which will allow them to enter different labor fields; they will also be able to participate in the implementation of technological infrastructure projects considering the dimensions of security and auditing; and to develop or improve professional projects within their professional field for the sector of information and communication technologies (ICT) in Uruguay.
Speaking to the newspaper, Monica Silvestri, coordinator of the career, explained that this week ended the pre-registration stage for the third edition, which will begin in July this year. According to her, the number of applicants has been increasing since 2015, as well as the number of places available for the course. This situation means that for the edition that begins this year, more or less the same number of students will be left out as those taking the technical course, with room for 200 students, the coordinator explained.
For Silvestri, one of the strong points of the proposal is that it is aligned with the needs of the industry, and this, added to the fact that it is a field of work in which there is zero unemployment due to the high demand for skilled labor, generates an extra attraction in the career. In addition, he explained that the blended mode of study, which is a novelty for public university careers in Uruguay, "opens opportunities for people who otherwise could not have studies," since the barrier of distance is eliminated. In short, having opted for this modality also collaborated with Utec's decentralization strategy, because although it is physically taught in Durazno and Fray Bentos, the course has students from all the departments of the country. In the last enrollment, a quota of 10% of those enrolled was set aside for people living in Montevideo.
More work
Silvestri explained that with this modality, every 15 days students must go to the regional institute where they signed up. In any case, she pointed out that from the beginning they tell the students that even though it may be thought that blended learning makes it easier to go through the course, it is a demanding process. The coordinator pointed out that although the student has more flexibility for the study, he/she must be very disciplined with the time to succeed under this modality. Utec understands that in order to pass the different stages of the course, an average of 25 hours a week must be devoted to study.
Although he considered that it is still too early to evaluate the impact of the course, he valued positively that many job opportunities have been disseminated, and said he knows of several cases in which students have improved their employment situation. One of the objectives is to try to encourage contact between students and companies, although he considered that one of the biggest difficulties they encounter is that "the jobs are in Montevideo". In this regard, he added that Utec seeks to generate more flexible work alternatives for those who live in the interior, such as teleworking, and noted that there are companies that have already taken that path. To "change the look", he said that it is key that companies begin to see that human resources with qualifications are generated outside the capital.
As part of this line of work, today from 14.00 the U-Tech, the first job fair in information technology, will be held at the headquarters of the South Central Regional Technological Institute of Utec in Durazno. Like many of the activities carried out by Utec, the fair has the support and backing of other public and private organizations. Among them are the Uruguay XXI Institute, through Smart Talent as co-organizer, and support from the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (CUTI), the National Youth Institute and the Municipality of Durazno.
As reported on the website of the Utec, the fair aims to promote the exchange between students in the region and companies in the field, thus promoting the link between them and that companies can publicize their job proposals, in addition to projects in which they can incorporate labor. The activity is not only aimed at Utec students, but also at high school students from all over the central part of the country, as well as the general public who may be interested. Sixteen companies from the ICT sector will participate in the fair.
In the framework of the activity will be generated instances of exchange between departmental authorities, CUTI, Uruguay XXI, the Departmental Economic Development Space and entrepreneurs in the sector located mainly in Montevideo, in order to make known the needs and potential of each of the actors, in addition to identifying points of contact that go towards a greater decentralization of employment related to ICT.
Source: La Diaria
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