StepByTech – Portugal

• June 16, 2023
• Andrew

Lisbon has become a city of excellence to live and work, with remote and digital work gaining increasing significance. Affirming its vision as the ‘Lisbon Unicorn Capital‘, the generalized need for technical resources, combined with the need for qualified talent and an increase in the representation of the female gender in technology, translates the scenario in which StepByTech was born. 

The program

StepByTech is, therefore, a program promoted by the Lisbon City Council – Future of Work Lisboa, with the support of Le Wagon Portugal, which focuses on the key competences in the future, where tech and soft skills represent essential requirements. 

Resulting from the City Council investment, StepByTech is a 100% free program for its participants, focused on: 

• Supporting women from the Greater Lisbon area in their career reskill through raising awareness, and training in web development. 
• Help 50 people from the Greater Lisbon area to kick start their career in technology, resulting in an estimated 27% salary increase in the next 2 years*. 
• As a macro-economic impact, increase the GDP by around 260 thousand euros per year*. 

Specifically, the program aims to: 

• Provide a first experience in the programming universe
• Accelerate the digital maturity of people and companies
• Develop tech talent in Lisbon 
• Reduce the gender and generational gap in the technological market
• Promote alignment with the needs of the labor market
• Develop teamwork skills and collaborative platform skills
• Promote confidence to navigate the tech market
• Increase other essential skills such as active learning; problem solving; analysis and critical thinking; flexibility, among others

The program is based on increasing expertise and complexity, in a modular logic, allowing participants to attend the initial Steps, even if they do wish to join Step 3.

The steps

• Tech Scan (500 participants). First steps in basic programming skills, front-end and back-end, with an overview of the tech scenario (HTML; CSS and Ruby). 
• Tech Ignition (50 participants). Deepening their skills in landing page development and use of JavaScript. 
• Tech Immersion (5 participants). Le Wagon’s Web Development Intensive Bootcamp, advanced training with international recognition, including Career Mentoring: support on CV and portfolio; job interviews; network of local and global partners; unlimited access to Le Wagon internal platform and alumni network (+20,000 members). 

Candidates’ characterisation 

Residents, professionals or students from the Greater Lisbon area, aged 18 to 68, who wish to take their first steps or increase their skills in the world of programming. Their personal motivations include: 

• Start a career in tech 
• Change career
• Increase tech skills 
• Increasing transversal skills 
• Improve their current career 
• Enhance skills 
• Other motivations, e.g. networking 

Why is StepByTech a good practice?

StepByTech has proved to be an example of good practice because of its potential for: 

• Inclusion, by the fact that it enhances gender and generational equality and democratizes access to technological knowledge and opportunities in the labor market. 
• Innovation, for being a 360 model – from the first steps in the tech world to mentoring for market integration – that promotes tech and soft skills, and can be attended in a modular logic. 
• It provides participants with access to several market players, and networking opportunities with differentiated workplaces.  
• It promotes the acquisition of Web Development skills to non-tech people, broadening horizons to this emerging dimension. 
• Conjugates synergies, combining public and private entities, for this purpose. 
• Scale and replicability, as the designed model may be reproduced in other public and private contexts, and with different contents/depth. 
• Sustainability, since its benefits last beyond the end, activating future skills such as active learning, programming, teamwork, problem solving, information analysis and critical sense, interpersonal relationships, communication and influence, applicable to the various contexts of life, particularly in the professional dimension.